LIBRARY 

OF  THE 

UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA. 

Class 


CAMBRIDGE   BIOLOGICAL   SERIES. 

GENERAL  EDITOR: — ARTHUR  E.  SHIPLEY,  M.A.,  F.R.S. 

FELLOW    AND    TUTOR    OF    CHRIST'S    COLLEGE,    CAMBRIDGE. 


AGRICULTURE 

IN    THE 

TROPICS 


CAMBRIDGE  UNIVERSITY  PRESS 

Eonljon:  FETTEK  LANE,  E.G. 
C.  F.  CLAY,  MANAGER 


ALSO 

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Bombag  anO  Calcutta:    MACMILLAN  AND  CO.,  LTD. 


[All  Rights  reserved] 


AGRICULTURE 

IN   THE 

TROPICS 

AN   ELEMENTARY   TREATISE 


BY 


J.  C.  WILLIS,  M.A.,  Sc.D. 

>y 

Director  of  the  Royal  Botanic  Gardens,  Ceylon 

Organising  Vice-President,  Ceylon  Agricultural  Society 

Editor  of  The  Tropical  Agriculturist 


Of   THE 

C   UNIVERSITY    1 


Cambridge  : 

at  the  University  Press 

1909 


Camtrttrge: 

PRINTED   BY   JOHN   CLAY,    M.A. 
AT    THE    UNIVERSITY   PRESS. 


PREFACE. 


DURING  the  last  twenty-five  years  a  great  deal  of 
attention  has  been  drawn  to  agriculture  in  the  tropics, 
as  to  other  subjects  connected  with  the  same  regions  of  the 
world.  Not  only  do  people  travel  more  in  the  tropical  regions, 
not  only  has  there  been  great  rivalry  between  the  nations  of 
the  North  in  acquiring  and  developing  colonies  there,  but  also 
such  agricultural  phenomena  as  the  collapse  of  coffee  planting 
and  the  rise  of  cinchona,  cacao,  and  tea  in  Ceylon,  the  depres- 
sion of  sugar  in  the  West  Indies  and  the  formation  of  an 
Imperial  Department  of  Agriculture  to  deal  with  the  situation, 
the  recent  rise  of  rubber  planting  in  Ceylon,  the  Federated 
Malay  States,  Mexico,  and  other  tropical  countries,  and  the 
depression  in  cotton,  followed  by  the  formation  of  the  British 
Cotton  Growing  Association,  and  the  extension  of  the  cultiva- 
tion of  this  crop  in  the  West  Indies  and  the  British  African 
colonies,  have  all  in  themselves  excited  very  general  interest. 
This  has  shown  itself,  among  other  things,  in  the  formation 
of  departments  of  agriculture  in  most  of  the  colonies  of  the 
tropics. 

The  danger  is  now  that  we  may  try  to  go  too  rapidly,  with- 
out a  proper  thinking  out  of  the  subject.  There  being  no 
general  work  upon  tropical  agriculture  other  than  those  dealing 
with  the  technical  side  of  the  subject,  such  as  Semler's  great 
volumes  upon  Tropische  Agrikultur,  Mollison's  Textbook  of 


vi  PREFACE 

Indian  Agriculture,  and  Nicholls'  smaller  but  useful  Tropical 
Agriculture,  I  have  endeavoured  to  supply  this  want  in  the 
present  work,  and  to  place  before  the  public,  as  clearly  as  may 
be,  something  of  the  underlying  "political"  and  theoretical  side 
of  the  subject,  setting  forth  what  such  agriculture  really  is, 
the  conditions  under  which  it  is  carried  on,  its  successes  and 
disasters  and  their  causes,  the  great  revolution  that  is  being 
effected  by  western  influences,  and  other  general  principles 
underlying  the  whole  subject,  in  whatever  country  it  may  be 
carried  on.  Under  each  product,  also,  I  have  tried  to  suggest 
promising  lines  for  improvement. 

No  attempt  has  been  made  to  write  a  book  for  the  practical 
man  to  use  in  connection  with  his  actual  field  work.  The  effort 
has  been  to  produce  a  work  that  may  be  helpful  and  thought- 
stimulating  for  the  student,  the  administrator,  or  the  traveller. 
Those  who  read  it  must  kindly  remember,  therefore,  that  it  is 
a  pioneer  and  strictly  elementary  work,  capable  of  vast  improve- 
ment after  the  subject  has  been  properly  discussed. 

Agriculture  in  the  tropics  is  wider  and  more  varied  in  range 
than  in  the  north,  and  we  cannot  doubt  that  there  will  be  more 
and  more  rapid  progress,  and  that  the  cooler  countries  will  come 
to  depend  more  and  more  upon  the  warmer  zones  for  their 
supplies  of  food  and  other  things.  The  white  powers  now 
control  the  bulk  of  the  tropics,  and  are  rapidly  opening  up 
Africa  and  south-eastern  Asia.  It  is  consequently  of  great 
importance  that  the  peoples  of  the  north  should  understand  the 
general  position  with  regard  to  agriculture  there,  and  be  able 
to  direct  matters  to  the  best  advantage,  both  of  themselves  and 
of  the  governed  peoples. 

The  tropics  cover  so  enormous  an  area  that  it  is  obvious 
that  I  can  only  write  of  much  of  it  from  reading,  though  the 
general  principles  set  forth  will  apply  to  all  countries.  My  own 


PREFACE  Vll 

experience  is  mainly  confined  to  Asia,  in  Ceylon,  India,  Java, 
and  the  Federated  Malay  States.  On  the  agriculture  of  the 
last  named  I  have  written  a  comprehensive  report,  which  often 
forms  the  basis  of  the  present  work,  and  I  am  much  indebted 
to  the  Government  of  that  dependency  for  allowing  the  use  of 
it.  I  have  also  visited  the  American  tropics,  but  have  not  been 
in  tropical  Africa,  though  the  heads  (to  be)  of  many  African 
departments  of  agriculture  have  come  to  Ceylon  for  part  of 
their  training. 

It  is  a  pleasure  also  to  acknowledge  the  kindly  encourage- 
ment and  help  of  many  friends,  among  whom  I  would  specially 
mention  Mr  O.  P.  Austin,  Chief  of  the  Bureau  of  Statistics  of 
the  United  States  Treasury  Department,  Dr  Melchior  Treub, 
Director  of  Agriculture  in  the  Dutch  East  Indies,  Mr  Francis 
Darwin,  late  Foreign  Secretary  of  the  Royal  Society,  Mr  I.  H. 
Burkill,  Reporter  on  Economic  Products  to  the  Government  of 
India,  Mr  G.  W.  Sturgess,  Government  Veterinary  Surgeon, 
Ceylon,  Mr  E.  E.  Green,  Entomologist,  Mr  M.  Kelway  Bamber, 
Chemist,  and  Mr  T.  Petch,  Mycologist,  of  my  own  department, 
and  last,  but  not  least,  my  wife.  I  am  also  much  beholden  for 
loan  of  blocks  for  illustration  to  the  Government  of  Ceylon,  to 
the  Kolonial  Wirthschaftliche  Komitee  of  Berlin,  to  Sir  Daniel 
Morris  of  the  West  Indian  Agricultural  Department,  and  others. 
I  am  much  indebted  for  help  to  Mr  A.  E.  Shipley. 

JOHN   C.   WILLIS. 


PERADENIYA,  CEYLON, 

December  21,  1908. 


CONTENTS. 
PART  I. 

THE   PRELIMINARIES  TO  AGRICULTURE. 


CHAP. 

PAGE 

I. 

LAND  AND  SOIL    .        .        .        . 

1 

II. 

CLIMATE        

5 

III. 

POPULATION  AND  LABOUR   

11 

IV. 

TRANSPORT  AND  CAPITAL    

16 

V. 

DRAINAGE  AND  IRRIGATION         

21 

VI. 

TOOLS,  TILLAGE,  MANURING,  CROPPING,  ETC.     . 

25 

VII, 

PLANT  LIFE  IN  THE  TROPICS.    ACCLIMATISATION 

30 

VIII 

..    AGRICULTURE  IN  THE  TROPICS  IN  PRIMITIVE  TIMES,  AND 

ITS  GRADUAL  CHANGE          .       -U       .-      .'. 

34 

PART  II. 

THE   PRINCIPAL  CULTIVATIONS  OF  THE  TROPICS. 

I. 

RlCE  AND   OTHER   CEREALS  AND   FOOD   PLANTS    . 

40 

II. 

SUGAR  . 

54 

III. 

TEAS     

59 

IV. 

COFFEE,  CACAO  OR  CHOCOLATE,  KOLA,  ETC. 

66 

V. 

COCONUTS  AND  OTHER  PALMS     

76 

VI. 

SPICES  ........... 

83 

VII 

FRUITS  AND  VEGETABLES    

90 

VIII 

..    TOBACCO,  OPIUM,  HEMP       

98 

IX. 

CINCHONA  AND  OTHER  DRUGS     

103 

X. 

FIBRE-YIELDING  PLANTS       

107 

XI. 

DYE  STUFFS  AND  TANNING  SUBSTANCES     . 

117 

X  CONTENTS 

CHAP.  PAGE 

XII.  OIL-YIELDING  PLANTS 119 

XIII.  INDIARUBBER,  GUTTAPERCHA,  AND  CAMPHOR     .        .        .123 

XIV.  MIXED  GARDEN  CULTIVATION  BY  TROPICAL  NATIVES        .      132 

XV.  THE  DISEASES  OF  PLANTS  IN  THE  TROPICS,  AND  THEIR 

TREATMENT .134 

XVI.  STOCK    .  138 


PART  III. 

AGRICULTURE   IN  THE  TKOPICS   (GENERAL). 

I.  VILLAGE  OR  PEASANT  AGRICULTURE 142 

II.  THE  RELATIONS  OP  THE  PEASANT  TO  THE  LAND  AND  CROPS  ; 

CULTURE  SYSTEMS,  ETC. 149 

III.  THE    FINANCING   OF    VILLAGE    AGRICULTURE,  AND    THE 

PROVISION  OF  LOCAL  MARKETS 155 

IV.  THE  CROPS  AND  METHODS  OF  PEASANT  AGRICULTURE,  AND 

THEIR  POSSIBILITIES  OF  IMPROVEMENT  ....      161 

V.  EDUCATION    OF   THE    PEASANT,  AND    ITS   BEARING    UPON 

AGRICULTURAL  PROGRESS 174 

VI.  CAPITALIST  OR  ESTATE  AGRICULTURE         .        .        .        .179 

VII.  THE  AGRICULTURAL  NEEDS  OF  THE  PLANTING  ENTERPRISE. 

SUMMARY  OF  PART  III 190 

PART  IV. 

AGRICULTURAL   ORGANISATION  AND   POLICY. 

I.  ORGANISATION  OF  AGRICULTURE         .        .        .  .196 

II.  AGRICULTURAL  POLICY 200 

III.  DEPARTMENTS  OF  AGRICULTURE  ....  214 


LIST   OF   ILLUSTBAT10NS. 

PLATE 

I.  Terraced  rice  fields  near  Kandy,  Ceylon     . 

II.  Rotation  of  crops  on  Rice  Fields  in  Java  . 

Ill  (a).  High  Lands  and  Paddy  Fields     . 

111(6).      Winnowing  Paddy 

IV.  Sugar  Cane  in  Java 

V.  Tea  Estate  in  Ceylon 

VI.  Plucking  Tea         .        . 

VII  (a).     Withering  Tea 

VII  (6).     Rolling  Tea 

VIII.       Arabian  Coffee,  cultivated  under  shade,  in 

Java 

IX.         Criollo  Cacao,  in  fruit ..... 
X(a).       Drying  Cacao  in  the  Sun  (Ceylon) 
X  (6).       Cacao  drying  house  in  Surinam  with  moveable 
platforms  to  roll  out       .... 

XI.  Coconuts  on  the  Ceylon  Coast     . 

XII.  Making  Copra  in  Samoa      .... 
XIII  (a).    Preparing  Cinnamon     ..... 

XIII  (6).    Picking  Cardamoms       .        .    "     . 

XIV  (a).    A  Tobacco  Field  in  Sumatra 

XIV  (6).     Fermenting  Tobacco  in  Sumatra         .        . 

XV.  Cinchona  succirubra  in  Java  ;  30  years  old  . 

XVI.  Interior    of   Cotton   Factory  in    the  West 

Indies 

XVII.  Sisal  hemp  in  Yucatan        ,        .        .        . 
XVIII  (a).  Rubber  Plantation  in  Ceylon 

XVIII  (6).  Making  biscuits  on  the  small  scale     . 
XIX.        Preparing  rubber  in  Africa  .... 

XX.  Rubber  tapping  on  the  Amazon  by  aid  of  a 

scaffolding       ...... 

XXI.  Plantation  of  camphor  in  Ceylon 

XXII  (a).  Mule  Plough  in  Mexico        .... 

XXII  (6).  River  transport  in  Ceylon   .... 

XXIII.  Cart  Transport  in  Ceylon    .... 

XXIV.  A  School  Garden 

XXV.  Plan  of    suggested   arrangement    of   land, 

transport,  and  drainage 


Opposite  p.  40 
44 
46 
46 
54 
60 
62 
64 
64 


66 
70 

72 


72 
78 
80 
84 

84 


100 

110 
114 
124 
124 
126 

128 
130 
150 
150 
162 
174 

208 


INTRODUCTION. 


THE  tropics  include  an  immense  area  of  land  in  every  con- 
tinent but  Europe.  Their  agriculture,  however,  is  only  of 
serious  importance  to  the  world  at  large  in  Southern  Asia, 
Brazil,  Mexico,  Central  America  and  the  West  Indies,  West 
Africa,  North  Australia,  and  a  few  groups  of  islands  in  the 
Pacific.  The  following  rough  figures,  giving  in  round  numbers 
the  value  or  bulk  of  the  chief  exports  from  some  of  the  principal 
exporting  countries,  will  give  some  idea  of  the  enormous  trade 
that  now  goes  on,  and  which  is  increasing  year  by  year. 


INDIA,  1905—6 

Coffee       £1,171,000 

Coir          361,000 

Cotton      23,822,000 

Dyes  and  Tans 787,000 

Jute          19,712,000 

Lac           2,068,000 

Opium      6,314,000 

Pepper      407,000 

Rice          ...         12,422,000 

Other  grains  (wheat,  etc.)         7,410,000 

Seeds  (oils,  etc.) 7,072,000 

Spices       605,000 

Sugar        ... 122,000 

Tea           ...  5,898,000 

Tobacco    .                                               156,000 


XIV  INTRODUCTION 

CEYLON,  1906. 

Areca  nuts          ... £135,000 

Cacao  or  cocoa 136,000 

Cardamoms         39,000 

Cinnamon            176,000 

Citronella            80,000 

Coconuts  fresh 62,000 

desiccated      227,000 

coir     62,000 

copra 378,000 

oil        636,000 

poonac            71,000 

Coffee       17,000 

Rubber1 ...  102,000 

Tea           4,093,000 

Tobacco 61,000 

JAVA,  1906. 

Arrack     273,000  gals. 

Cinchona 14,840,000  Ibs. 

Cacao  or  cocoa 3,669,000  Ibs. 

Coffee       25,700  tons 

Indigo       373,000  Ibs. 

Nutmegs...         276,000  Ibs. 

Pepper     5,878  tons 

Rice 38,000  tons 

Sugar       787,000  tons 

Tea           27,500,000  Ibs. 

Tobacco 114,000,000  Ibs. 

SIAM  (Bangkok),  1904. 

Rice          845,000  tons 

Pepper      1400  tons 

COCHIN-CHINA,  1906. 

Rice  (various  forms) 600,000  tons 

Cardamoms         100  tons 

Cotton      ...  2200  tons 

Maize        3500  tons 

Pepper      2600  tons 

1  This  export  is  rising  rapidly,  and  in  a  few  years  will  be  worth  millions. 


INTRODUCTION  XV 

PHILIPPINE  ISLANDS,  1905. 

Manila  hemp      £4,331,000 

Copra       ...  649,000 

Tobacco 450,000 

Sugar        1,015,000 

Sisal  hemp          34,000 

LAGOS,  GOLD  COAST,  AND  SIERRA  LEONE,  1904. 

Palm  oil  and  kernels     ...         £1,344,000 

Cacao       '       200,000 

HAWAII,  1903. 

Sugar        £5,220,000 

FIJI,  1904. 

Copra       £90,000 

Sugar       469,000 

BAHAMAS,  1904. 

Bahamas  hemp £29,000 

BARBADOS,  1904. 

Sugar        £440,000 

Molasses 144,000 

CUBA,  1904. 

Bananas 740,000  tons 

Cacao  or  cocoa 5,946,000  Ibs. 

Molasses  and  syrup       37,604,000  gals. 

Pineapples           427,000  cwts. 

Rum         1,134,000  gals. 

Sugar       1,097,000  tons 

Tobacco,  cigars 215,000,000 

cigarettes,  packets  of  18,996,000 

leaf  27,939,000  Ibs. 

JAMAICA,  1904. 

Bananas about  £650,000 

Cacao       41,000 

Coconut  products           49,000 

Coffee       112,000 

Oranges 72,000 

Rum         97,000 

Sugar       121,000 


XVI  INTRODUCTION 

TRINIDAD,  1905—6. 

Cacao  or  cocoa    ...        £1,041,000 

Sugar       451,000 

BRITISH  GUIANA,  1904 — 5. 

Sugar       £1,280,000 

Rum         62,000  gals. 

BRAZIL,  1904. 

Coffee       £19,957,000 

Cotton      826,000 

Mate         954,000 

Kubber1 11,200,000 

Tobacco 838,000 


When  we  look  over  this  and  similar  lists,  and  realise  that 
the  tropics  supply  us  with  all  our  cinchona  bark  (for  quinine), 
cinnamon,  coconuts,  coconut  oil,  copra,  coir,  coffee,  gutta-percha, 
jute,  palm-oil,  rice  (with  the  exception  of  a  little  in  the 
Southern  United  States),  rubber,  sago,  spices,  sugar  (except 
the  beet  sugar  of  the  continent),  tea,  tapioca,  and  many  other 
things,  the  vast  importance  of  agriculture  in  the  tropics,  and  of 
its  proper  conservation,  improvement  and  extension,  will  be 
understood.  The  area  occupied  by  the  cultivation  of  the 
export  products  is  perhaps  25  million  acres  and  that  spent 
in  maintaining  the  actual  people  of  the  tropics  is  perhaps 
about  another  275  millions.  Even  at  this  rate  not  more  than 
half  the  available  land  is  used,  and  not  only  so,  but  much  of 
it  is  very  inefficiently  used,  while  intensive  agriculture,  as 
practised  in  Europe  or  America,  is  almost  unknown,  except 
among  European  planters.  Could  the  yield  of  cereals  in  India, 
for  example,  be  increased  by  a  mere  bushel  an  acre,  a  vast 
difference  would  be  made  in  the  economic  prosperity  of  that 
country.  This,  however,  is  more  easily  said  than  done. 

1  This  is  not  the  product  of  agriculture,  but  of  collecting  in  the  forests. 
With  the  growth  of  the  rubber  planting  industry  of  Southern  Asia,  and  the 
great  competition  that  must  ensue,  the  rubber  exports  of  Brazil  will  probably 
decline  in  value,  though  perhaps  not  in  quantity. 


INTRODUCTION  XV11 

The  agriculture  conducted  by  Europeans  in  the  tropics 
is  more  efficient  than  that  of  the  natives  of  the  country. 
This  may  be  roughly  illustrated  by  the  case  of  Ceylon,  where 
the  exports  of  "  European  "  produce  are  to  those  of  "  native  " 
produce  as  3  to  1,  while  the  area  cultivated  by  the  former,  and 
the  population  supported  by  it,  are  only  as  1  to  5,  the  popula- 
tion being  equally  dense  in  either  case,  or  denser  on  the 
European  estates. 

Before  agriculture  upon  any  but  the  very  smallest  scale  or 
basis  can  be  carried  on  in  a  country,  there  must  be  in  that 
country  satisfactory  conditions  as  regards  certain  indispensable 
preliminaries. 

Land  must  be  available  at  a  moderate  cost.  The  price  of 
land  will  naturally  vary  with  its  advantages  as  regards  nearness 
to  market,  good  or  bad  transport  facilities,  good  or  bad  climate, 
and  many  other  things,  but  "  moderate  "  in  the  sense  used  here 
will  of  course  take  note  of  all  these  things. 

Roads  or  other  means  of  transport  must  be  in  good  order, 
to  bring  material  to  the  plantation  and  to  take  the  produce 
away.  Without  good  means  of  transport,  it  is  idle  to  expect 
any  serious  agricultural  industries  to  be  carried  on,  for  sale  or 
export  of  the  produce. 

Capital,  to  some  extent  at  least,  must  be  forthcoming. 
Even  those  undertakings  which  soonest  give  a  return,  such  as 
cotton,  whose  crop  can  be  picked  in  six  months,  need  a  certain 
amount  of  capital  to  tide  over  the  period  of  waiting  ;  without 
this  only  the  very  smallest  enterprises  can  be  carried  on,  and 
even  these  will  often  be  in  an  unhealthy  condition,  their  crops 
being  mortgaged  to  money-lenders. 

Labour  must  also  be  available,  if  any  but  very  small 
enterprises  are  to  go  on.  A  man  and  his  family  cannot 
obviously  till  more  than  a  few  acres  at  most,  and  for  anything 
more  extensive — and  efficiency  in  agriculture  largely  goes  with 
the  larger  enterprises — we  must  have  hired  labour.  This 
difficulty  is  one  of  the  greatest  that  confront  anyone  proposing 
to  start  agricultural  enterprises  in  the  tropics.  In  India, 
Ceylon,  the  Malay  States,  Java,  and  some  of  the  West  Indian 
islands,  labour  is  comparatively  plentiful,  but  elsewhere  it  is 
usually  difficult  to  obtain. 


XV111  INTRODUCTION      . 

In  the  first  part  of  this  book,  we  propose  to  discuss,  in 
brief,  these  necessary  preliminaries  to  agriculture.  In  the 
second  we  shall  consider  the  principal  cultivated  crops  of  the 
tropics  in  a  general  way,  with  a  view  partly  to  making  sugges- 
tions for  their  improvement.  In  the  third  part  we  shall  go  on 
to  consider  village  and  capitalist  agriculture  respectively,  with 
•the  directions  in  which  improvement  seems  most  possible,  and 
in  the  concluding  part  of  the  work  shall  discuss  agricultural 
policy,  and  the  organisation  of  a  department  of  agriculture, 
a  thing  which  has  now  become  a  necessity  in  most  tropical 
countries. 


PART   I. 

THE   PRELIMINARIES   TO   AGRICULTURE. 


CHAPTER   I. 

LAND   AND   SOIL. 

LAND  in  the  tropics  may  be  of  many  types,  but  the  two 
chief  kinds  are  forest  and  grass  lands,  and  it  is  as  a  rule  only 
on  the  former  (or  what  has  been  so)  that  there  is  much  agri- 
culture. Speaking  broadly,  the  greater  part  of  the  land  near 
to  the  sea  is,  or  has  been  (as  apparently  in  India),  covered  with 
forest,  which  in  general  marks  the  districts  of  good  and  well- 
distributed  rainfall.  In  the  interior  of  tropical  Africa,  and  in 
parts  of  South  America,  what  the  Americans  term  savannahs, 
i.e.  open  park-like  grass  lands,  with  patches  of  forest  here  and 
there,  prevail. 

Forest  land  is  preferred  for  agriculture,  not  only  on  account 
of  its  (usually)  better  rainfall,  but  also  on  account  of  its  richer 
soil,  due  to  the  humus,  or  decaying  organic  matter,  contained 
in  it.  The  forest  is  felled,  and  burnt  off  in  the  drier  weather 
of  the  year.  As  a  rule  the  timber  does  not  pay  to  work,  and  is 
completely  burnt,  enough  only  being  kept  for  houses,  factories, 
etc.  The  crops  are  put  out  among  the  stumps,  which  in  a  few 
years  are  completely  removed  by  decay  and  white  ants. 

A  very  favourite  method  of  cultivation,  among  natives  in 
the  east  at  any  rate,  is  what  is  called  in  Ceylon  chena,  in 
Malaya  ladang,  in  India  jhuming,  etc.  The  forest,  or  rather 
the  trees  in  it  below  a  certain  girth,  is  felled  and  burnt,  and 

1 


2  AGRICULTURE   IN  THE   TROPICS  [PT.  I 

various  cereals  or  other  crops  are  sown  upon  the  land  in  the 
rains.  On  a  rich,  newly  cleared  land,  these  give  a  very  large 
return  for  a  minimum  of  work,  and  this  method  of  cultivation 
is  in  consequence  highly  popular,  until  the  country  becomes  too 
thickly  peopled  to  admit  of  it.  After  one  to  three  crops  the 
land  is  abandoned,  and  grows  up  in  scrubby  jungle,  and  may  be 
again  chena-ed  after  8 — 50  years.  Vast  areas  of  good  forest 
land  have  been  ruined  in  southern  Asia  by  this  destructive 
practice,  and  in  most  countries  chena  permits  for  crown  land 
are  only  issued  now  under  stress  of  very  hard  times  and  failure 
of  the  regular  crops. 

Land  in  the  tropics  may  be  held  in  a  variety  of  ways.  For 
instance,  in  Ceylon  the  tenure  is  fully  freehold,  and  the  owner 
of  land  leaves  it  to  his  children,  the  men  taking  it  in  equal 
shares,  as  in  France.  By  this  means,  emigration  even  to  new 
districts  in  the  same  country  is  rendered  difficult,  and  there  is 
little  chance  of  anyone  showing  any  agricultural  enterprise, 
unless  he  be  a  comparatively  large  holder  of  land.  The  ordinary 
villager  owns  a  mere  trifle  of  land,  as  a  rule  barely  sufficient  for 
his  own  support  and  that  of  his  family.  In  this  way,  the 
land  becomes  very  "  ancestral,"  and  the  same  family  may  go 
on  in  the  same  place  for  an  almost  unlimited  number  of 
generations.  When  the  area  is  small,  the  ownership  is  com- 
monly joint  and  this  still  further  retards  agricultural  progress, 
for  all  the  owners  must  consent  before  any  change  can  be 
introduced. 

While  in  Ceylon  the  holder  of  land  pays  no  tax  to  the 
Government,  in  India  he  pays  a  considerable  levy  upon  his 
land,  but  most  often,  perhaps,  holds  it  otherwise  freehold.  In 
India,  Ceylon,  and  other  eastern  countries  the  ancient  system 
of  "  villages "  prevails,  these  being  divisions  of  country  of 
500  acres  or  more,  sometimes,  but  not  always,  with  a  central 
village  street  or  group  of  houses.  Very  often  some  of  the  land 
is  cultivated,  some  waste,  and  most  commonly,  perhaps,  the 
latter  is  the  joint  property  of  the  village,  all  the  villagers  being 
allowed  to  graze  their  cattle  on  it,  or  to  cut  wood  there.  The 
villages  themselves  may  be  "joint"  villages,  owned  in  their 
entirety  by  the  community  living  in  them,  who  work  the  land 


CH.   I]  LAND   AND   SOIL  3 

in  sections  appropriated  to  each  family,  sometimes  on  a  more 
or  less  cooperative  system ;  but  more  often,  within  the  tropics, 
they  are  not  such  villages,  but  each  family  actually  owns  (or 
leases)  a  piece  of  land.  In  the  former  case  the  village  is 
assessed  as  a  whole  for  the  payment  of  the  Government  tax ; 
in  the  latter  each  proprietor  is  separately  assessed.  In  both 
cases  the  village  artisans  are  often  paid  by  a  levy  on  the 
produce. 

In  the  Federated  Malay  States,  land  is  regarded  as  entirely 
the  property  of  the  Government ;  in  fact,  "land  nationalisation," 
so  much  discussed  in  Europe,  is  already  an  accomplished  fact 
in  this  country.  Anyone  may  buy  land  from  the  Government 
on  payment  of  a  premium  of  one  dollar  or  so  an  acre,  and  an 
annual  quit-rent  of  one  or  more  dollars  an  acre.  Should  he 
cease  to  pay  the  rent,  or  abandon  the  land  for  three  consecutive 
years,  the  Government  steps  in  arid  resumes  possession  of  it. 
The  original  grant  of  the  land  from  the  Government  is  for 
999  years,  so  that  there  is  no  fear  of  the  possessor  being 
disturbed,  so  long  as  he  continues  to  work  the  land  properly, 
but  the  Government  is  entitled  to  revise  the  rate  of  quit-rent 
payable  every  30  years.  In  many  ways  this  is  perhaps  the 
best  system  of  alienating  land  from  the  Government,  for  the 
latter  derive  an  annual  income  from  it,  and  resume  it  if 
abandoned,  while  the  original  buyer  does  not  need  to  expend 
so  much  capital  on  the  actual  purchase  as  he  does  for  instance 
in  Ceylon,  where  he  buys  the  land  outright,  and  thus  he  has 
more  available  for  cultivation. 

In  the  West  Indies,  and  in  most  of  the  modern  British 
tropical  colonies,  the  land  is  freehold,  and  though  at  one  time 
in  the  former  it  was  very  largely  held  in  big  blocks  for  sugar 
and  other  plantations,  it  is  now  passing  to  some  extent  into 
the  hands  of  small  peasant  proprietors. 

Except  in  the  thinly  peopled  countries  it  is  gradually 
becoming  more  and  more  difficult  to  obtain  considerable  blocks 
of  land  for  the  larger  agricultural  enterprises,  for  the  small 
proprietor  usually  sticks  very  closely  to  his  own  little  patch  of 
land,  and  refuses  to  sell  it,  even  if  it  be  almost  surrounded  by 
a  large  estate. 

1—2 


4  AGRICULTURE    IN   THE   TROPICS  [PT.  I 

Soils.  Speaking  generally,  the  soils  of  the  tropics  are 
very  poor  as  compared  with  those  of  the  temperate  zone. 
Instead  of  the  comparatively  dark  colour  and  damp  look  of 
the  latter,  which  is  partly  due  to  the  larger  content  of  humus, 
or  decaying  organic  matter,  they  show  a  light  colour  and  rather 
dry  appearance  in  ordinary  fine  weather,  being  very  poor  in 
humus.  Decay  takes  place  so  rapidly  and  so  completely  that 
there  is  but  little  accumulation  of  its  products. 

The  soils  that  occur  are  of  every  conceivable  kind,  depending 
mainly  upon  the  subjacent  rocks.  The  richest  are  in  general 
the  volcanic  soils  such  as  are  found  in  Java,  the  West  Indies, 
and  elsewhere,  but  there  are  also  very  good  deposited  or  alluvial 
soils  in  Ceylon,  India,  the  Malay  States,  and  in  other  countries. 
And  it  is  worthy  of  notice,  as  tending  to  show  that  superior 
richness,  provided  that  the  two  soils  have  both  all  the  elements 
of  plant  food  in  fair  amount,  often  makes  but  little  difference, 
that  the  growth  of  most  cultivated  crops  in  Java,  such  as  tea, 
cacao,  rubber,  etc.,  is  but  little  superior  to  that  in  the  poor  soils 
of  Ceylon,  and  sometimes  is  not  so  good1. 

Probably  as  the  result  of  the  lack  of  humus,  the  tropical 
soils  seem  on  the  whole  to  be  rather  less  water-retaining  than 
those  of  more  northern  countries,  and  the  plants  growing  in 
them  (in  the  open)  tend  to  flag  rather  more  quickly  for  lack  of 
water,  though  it  is  true  that  the  sun  is  so  much  hotter  that 
this  may  probably  be  sufficient  to  account  for  the  fact. 

1  This,  formerly  an  unexplained  fact,  becomes  clearer  in  the  light  of  recent 
physiological  work.  Cf.  Blackman,  Optima  and  Limiting  Factors,  Annals  of 
Botany,  xix,  1905,  p.  281 ;  Smith,  Application  of  the  theory  of  Limiting  Factors 
to  Measurements  of  Growth,  Annals  R.  B.  G.  Peradeniya,  in,  1906,  p.  303. 


CHAPTER  II. 


CLIMATE. 

THE  tropics  cover  so  vast  an  area  that  it  is  obvious  that 
there  must  be  a  great  variety  in  climates,  but  in  general  the 
types  of  climate  may  be  set  down  as  two :  the  moist,  near  the 
equator  and  the  sea;  and  the  dry,  inland,  and  usually  away 
from  the  equator.  The  former  is  characterised  by  a  moist  air, 
and  a  comparatively  uniform  temperature,  with  but  little  daily 
or  annual  variation,  the  latter  by  a  considerable  range,  often, 
if  it  be  far  from  the  equator,  annual  as  well  as  daily,  and  a  dry 
air ;  while  of  course  as  one  ascends  the  mountains  one  as  a  rule 
comes  into  a  cooler  and  moister  climate. 

Every  type  of  climate  may  be  met  with  in  passing  from 
Galle  in  the  south  of  Ceylon,  to  Leh  in  the  northern  Himalayas, 
so  that  a  comparison  of  some  of  the  figures  for  various  places 
lying  between  these  extremes  will  be  useful.  The  nearer  to 
the  equator,  other  things  being  equal,  the  smaller  is  the  annual 
range  of  temperature : 

Colombo  Madura   Cochin  Bombay    Surat    Calcutta    Patna1 
Mean  max.  89          101  91          90          100          96  101 

„      min.  72  68  71  68  56  55  49 

„     humidity     78  65          80          77  62          78  65 

Benares  Lucknow  Lahore  Jacobabad  Peshawar  Leh  (11,000  ft.) 
Mean  max.          105          104         107  111  105        80 

„     min.  48  46  43  43  39          9 

„     humidity    60  57  50  46  54        49 

1  This  and  all  after  it  are  not  geographically  "tropical"  but  are  usually 
looked  upon  as  in  the  tropics. 


AGRICULTURE   IN   THE   TROPICS 


[PT.  I 


It  will  be  noticed  that  the  range  is  greater  the  lower  the 
humidity,  in  addition  to  increasing  as  one  passes  to  the  north ; 
compare  for  instance  Madura  and  Cochin,  which  are  in  approxi- 
mately the  same  latitude. 

The  prevailing  character  of  the  climate  near  the  equator 
and  near  the  sea,  as  at  Colombo,  is  a  very  uniform  temperature, 
with  rain  at  all  times  of  year,  but  more  especially  when  the  sun 
has  just  passed  overhead.  Near  the  equator,  therefore,  there 
are  two  more  specially  rainy  seasons  in  the  year,  at  intervals 
of  about  six  months,  while  as  one  goes  northward  they  get 
nearer  and  nearer  together,  till  in  the  far  north  or  south  of  the 
tropics  they  run  into  one  rainy  season  of  a  few  months  duration, 
as  the  following  tables  of  rainfall  will  illustrate. 

Colombo  Trichinopoli  Bangalore 


Jan.      3-0 

1-0 

Feb.      1-7 

0-5 

Mar.     5-5 

07 

Apr.     8-8] 
May   13-2  I 
'June    8-2  j 

1-8 
3-8 
1-3 

July      5-5 
Aug.     4-5 
Sept.     4-9 
Oct.     12-91 

2-2 
4.4 

5-3 

7-8 

Nov.    12-7  1 

5-2 

Dec.      6-4J 

3-1 

igalore   Bombay  Nagpur 

Calcutta   Agra   Lahore 

0-2 

0-1 

0-6 

0-4 

0-5 

0-7 

O'l 

o-o 

0-4 

1O 

0-3 

1-1 

0-6 

o-o 

v    0-6 

1-3 

0'2 

1-1 

1*1 

o-o 

0-5 

2-3 

0-2 

0-6 

5-0  V 

0-5 

0-8 

5-6 

0-7 

0-9 

3-sJ 

20-8' 

8-81 

11-8" 

2-9^ 

1-8 

4-0 

24-7 

13-3  1 

13-0 

9'8 

7'4) 

5-9] 

15-1 

8-9  1 

13-9 

6-7 

4-6  1 

6-3  \ 

10-8, 

7-8J 

10-0, 

4-3. 

2-4J 

6-4) 

1-8 

2-3 

5-4 

0-4 

0-6 

1-9 

0-5 

0-4 

0-6 

o-o 

0-2 

0-7 

o-i 

0-5 

0-3 

0-2 

0-5  1 

Rainy  seasons  indicated  by  brackets. 

The  longer  the  dry  season,  the  hotter,  generally  speaking,  it 
becomes,  so  that  in  the  north  of  India  the  heat  is  often  extreme 
at  the  end  of  the  dry  weather,  whereas,  near  the  equator,  where 
there  is  rain  at  all  times,  the  highest  temperatures  recorded  are 
rarely  above  90°.  The  range  of  temperature  is  greater  in  the 
northern  hemisphere  than  in  the  southern,  where  the  land 
masses  are  smaller,  and  only  in  the  interior  of  Australia  does 
the  temperature  become  anything  like  so  high  as  in  north 
India. 


1  Blanford,  Climate  and  Weather  of  India  and  Ceylon. 


CH.  Il]  CLIMATE  7 

Near  the  equator,  and  near  the  sea,  the  climate  is 
wonderfully  uniform,  the  mean  temperatures  of  the  twelve 
months  at  Colombo  being  for  example  79,  80,  82,  83,  83,  82, 
81,  81,  81,  81,  80,  80,  while  at  Singapore  they  are  almost  the 
same.  On  the  average,  in  Colombo,  the  temperature  only 
reaches  about  86°  during  the  day,  and  falls  to  about  75°  at 
night.  In  drier  places  inland  the  daily  range  is  greater,  but 
the  annual  range  is  much  the  same  until  one  gets  far  from  the 
equator. 

Humidity,  other  things  being  equal,  increases  with  elevation. 
Thus  Colombo  at  sea  level,  and  Hakgala  at  5600  feet,  have 
much  the  same  rainfall,  similarly  distributed,  and  their  average 
humidities  are  78  and  87  respectively. 

Another  feature  which  makes  some  difference  to  the  climate 
of  a  place  is  the  exposure  upon  the  mountains.  Thus  in  Ceylon, 
when  the  south-west  monsoon  is  blowing,  there  is  heavy  rain 
upon  the  western  side  of  the  mountain  chain,  while  the  eastern 
side  is  comparatively  dry.  While  the  rainfall  at  Ratnapura, 
on  the  south-western  side,  is  20'78  inches  in  June,  that  at 
Badulla,  50  miles  away,  upon  the  eastern  side,  is  only  2*66 
inches.  In  the  north-east  monsoon,  which  blows  for  six  months 
in  the  year  in  the  opposite  direction,  the  positions  are  reversed, 
so  that  the  main  wet  seasons  in  the  two  places  differ  by  about 
six  months,  and  the  periodicity  of  the  phenomena  of  plant  life 
is  also  different,  Para  rubber  for  instance  ripening  its  seeds  at 
Badulla  in  February,  and  at  Ratnapura  in  August. 

The  actual  direction  of  exposure  of  a  place  upon  the 
mountains  also  makes  a  difference.  In  Java  and  Ceylon,  the 
mornings  are  comparatively  cloudless  compared  with  the  after- 
noons. It  therefore  follows  that,  in  general,  a  place  with  an 
eastern  exposure  will  get  more  sunshine  than  one  with  an 
exactly  similar  exposure  to  the  west.  In  the  extreme  north  of 
the  tropics,  a  place  with  a  northern  exposure  will,  other  things 
being  equal,  be  colder  than  one  with  a  southern  exposure,  and 
in  the  extreme  south  the  reverse  will  be  the  case. 

The  amount  of  sunshine  falling  upon  a  particular  place  is 
also  a  feature  of  some  importance.  The  temperature  in  the  sun 
is  usually  very  high,  amounting  to  140° — 170°  F.,  while  that  in 


8  AGRICULTURE   IN   THE   TROPICS  [PT.  I 

the  shade  will  in  general  be  60° — 80°  lower.  While  in  places 
like  Singapore,  where  the  influence  of  the  monsoons  is  slight, 
there  may  be  sunshine  nearly  every  day,  in  places  like  Ceylon, 
where  they  are  very  pronounced,  there  may  be  weeks  or  even 
months  with  hardly  a  gleam  of  sunshine  during  the  first  onset 
of  the  monsoons. 

Rain  in  the  tropics  usually  falls  in  violent  showers,  rapidly 
raising  the  levels  of  the  streams,  making  roads  and  flowerbeds 
"  swim  "  with  water,  and  doing  a  good  deal  of  damage  by  the 
silting  up  of  stream  beds,  washing  away  of  soil,  etc.  The  usual 
shower  varies  from  0*03  to  3'0  inches,  and  it  falls  in  a  much 
shorter  time  than  in  Europe. 

Wind  in  the  tropics  is,  generally  speaking,  light  compared 
with  that  found,  for  instance,  in  Great  Britain.  In  the  monsoon 
region  of  South  Asia,  near  the  equator  the  wind  blows  fairly 
steadily  for  six  months  in  one,  and  six  in  the  other  direction, 
the  year  being  less  evenly  divided  further  north. 

In  tropical,  as  in  other  countries,  elevation  has  a  very 
definite  influence  upon  the  climate,  the  mean  temperature — 
and  that  for  practically  all  hours  of  the  day  and  night — falling 
about  3'5°— 4°  F.  for  every  1000  feet  of  ascent.  Thus  in  Ceylon, 
to  take  places  with  about  similar  and  similarly  distributed  rain- 
fall, the  mean  temperature  of  various  months  in  Colombo,  at  sea 
level,  runs  from  79°  to  83°,  at  Peradeniya,  1560  feet  above  sea 
level,  from  74°  to  79°,  and  at  Hakgala,  5600  feet  above  sea  level, 
from  58°  to  63°.  To  dwellers  in  Europe,  where  the  thermo- 
meter may  easily  range  from  the  highest  to  the  lowest  of  these 
figures  in  one  day,  these  may  seem  trifling  differences,  but  they 
have  a  most  marked  effect  upon  vegetable  life  where  they  go 
on,  as  these  do,  all  the  year  round.  Hardly  a  plant  grown  in 
the  botanic  gardens  at  Hakgala  is  the  same  as  in  the  gardens 
at  Peradeniya,  and  this  not  from  any  wish  to  keep  the  collec- 
tions dissimilar,  but  because  plants  which  will  grow  at  the 
latter  place  will  often  not  grow  at  the  former  except  under  glass. 
With  the  exception  of  camphor  and  tea,  which  come  from  much 
further  north,  and  are  most  accommodating  to  temperature, 
but  few  cultivations  can  be  successfully  carried  on  in  both 
places. 


CH.  II]  CLIMATE  9 

The  range  of  temperature  varies  according  to  the  slope,  to 
some  extent,  and  on  open  plains  at  high  elevations  there  is  often 
a  very  considerable  range  of  temperature,  making  the  climate 
very  unlike  that  of  places  lying  upon  the  slopes  quite  near  by. 
Thus  at  Nuwara  Eliya  in  Ceylon,  which  lies  upon  an  open  plain 
at  an  elevation  of  6200  feet,  the  thermometer  ranges  between  28° 
and  81°  during  the  drier  season  of  the  year,  while  at  Hakgala, 
only  six  miles  off,  and  600  feet  lower,  the  extremes  are  about 
37°  and  79°  during  the  same  period,  Hakgala  lying  upon  the 
ordinary  mountain  slopes.  Consequently,  perhaps,  many  Euro- 
pean plants  of  the  north  succeed  at  Nuwara  Eliya,  while  they 
merely  struggle  for  life  at  Hakgala.  The  greater  range  of 
temperature  on  the  plain  is  probably  largely  due  to  the  greater 
radiation  that  goes  on;  and  it  will  be  noticed  that  there  is  more 
difference  between  the  minima  than  between  the  maxima. 

The  character  of  the  soil  also  has  to  some  extent  an  effect 
upon  the  climate,  a  sandy  soil  being  liable  to  get  much  more 
heated  during  the  day  and  cooled  at  night  than  a  clayey  one, 
so  that  there  is  a  greater  range  of  temperature  upon  the  former. 
Drainage  of  the  soil,  more  particularly  in  swampy  land,  thus 
has  a  tendency  to  make  the  range  of  temperature  greater. 

The  effect  upon  the  climate  of  the  clearing  of  the  forests  in 
a  country  has  been  a  fruitful  source  of  dispute,  many  of  the 
disputants  ignoring  the  fact  that  it  need  not  necessarily  be  the 
same  in  all  countries.  So  far  as  the  tropics  are  concerned,  its 
general  effect  seems  to  be  to  make  the  climate  warmer  and  drier. 
In  Ceylon,  for  example,  at  Peradeniya  and  Kandy,  1600  feet 
above  sea  level,  most  of  the  houses  built  prior  to  1850  had  fire- 
places, which  are  now  quite  unnecessary,  all  the  forest  having 
been  cleared  from  the  neighbourhood,  and  the  mean  temperature 
having  apparently  risen.  In  the  Federated  Malay  States,  the 
climate  at  corresponding  elevations  appears  to  be  slightly  cooler 
or  at  least  more  uniform  and  damper  than  in  Ceylon,  the  whole 
country  being  as  yet  covered  with  forest. 

The  clearing  of  the  forest  acts  in  a  disastrous  way  upon  the 
streams,  these  being  now  much  exposed,  and  consequently  liable 
to  dry  up  during  dry  weather.  Most  of  the  streams  which  rise 
in  the  lower  parts  of  the  western  mountains  of  Ceylon  now  dry 


10  AGRICULTURE   IN   THE   TROPICS  [PT.  I 

up  during  February  and  March,  but  those  which  rise  above 
5000  feet — land  above  that  elevation  being  kept  in  its  natural 
condition  of  forest — remain  running  during  that  period. 

Not  only  does  clearing  expose  the  soil  to  the  sun,  but  also 
to  the  wind,  which  does  not  blow  in  the  forest,  and  which  has  a 
drying  effect.  Shelter  belts  of  trees  have  had  to  be  planted 
through  the  tea  and  other  crops  throughout  many  planting 
districts,  to  check  the  sweeping  of  the  wind  over  the  fields. 


11 


CHAPTER  III. 

POPULATION   AND   LABOUR. 

THE  total  population  of  the  tropics  is  large,  yet  not  so  great 
as  that  of  the  temperate  zones,  which  have  about  the  same 
area.  India,  Ceylon,  Java,  and  some  of  the  small  West  Indian 
islands  are  thickly  populated,  but  in  the  rest  of  the  tropics  the 
peopling  is  extremely  sparse.  Of  late  years  the  natives  of  India 
and  Java  have  begun  to  emigrate  to  other  countries,  and  this 
may  be  expected  to  go  on  more  and  more ;  but  as  yet  they 
in  general  ultimately  return  with  their  savings  to  their  native 
land. 

The  following  rough  figures  of  populations  and  densities  are 
instructive,  especially  when  we  remember  that  South  America, 
at  any  rate,  is  probably  as  productive  as  India : 

Country  Area  in  sq.  m.  Population       Density  per  sq.  m. 

India  1,700,000  294,266,701  173 

Ceylon  (W.,  S.,  and 

Centr.  Provs.)  5,877  2,110,251  359 

Java  48,600  28,384,731  584 

Mexico  767,005  13,545,462  17 

Brazil  3,218,166  17,000,000  5 

Jamaica  4,193  639,491  152 

Barbados  166  195,000  1174 

Now  nature  is  fairly  prodigal  in  the  tropics,  and  owing  to 
the  smaller  wants  of  the  people  a  larger  population  per  square 
mile  can  probably  be  supported  by  agriculture  than  in  the 
temperate  zone,  though  the  agriculture  in  general  is  inefficient. 
While  in  the  United  States  two  men  are  enough  for  50  acres 
of  rice,  in  the  tropics  25  to  50  will  be  needed  in  many  districts. 

The  races  that  inhabit  the  tropics  are  very  numerous  and 
varied.  The  majority  are  natives  of  British  India — Bengalis, 


12  AGRICULTURE   IN  THE  TROPICS  [PT.  I 

Mahrattas,  Tamils,  Telugus,  Burmese,  and  many  others  of 
less  note.  In  the  south-eastern  parts  of  Asia  the  Malayan 
races  are  of  importance,  more  especially  the  natives  of  Java. 
Africa  is  mainly  inhabited  by  negro  races,  and  the  same  is  the 
case  in  the  West  Indies,  while  Mexico  and  South  America  are 
chiefly  the  home  of  the  mixed  race  derived  from  the  Spaniard 
or  Portuguese  and  the  Indian.  There  is  also  a  sprinkling  of  half- 
caste  races  in  Asia. 

Speaking  in  a  broad  general  way,  all  these  races  have 
similar  faults  regarded  from  the  agricultural  point  of  view.  In 
particular,  they  may  all  be  justly  accused  of  what  we  may 
perhaps  term  in  a  general  way  indolence.  However  hard  they 
may  have  to  work  upon  their  own  properties  to  make  a  liveli- 
hood, the  general  principles  upon  which  they  act  would  seem  to 
be — to  do  no  work  that  can  possibly  be  avoided,  never  to  do 
to-day  what  can  possibly  be  put  off  until  to-morrow,  and  to  do 
as  their  great  grandfather  did  and  because  he  did  it.  It  can 
be  readily  seen,  therefore,  that  to  induce  people  like  these  to 
progress  in  agriculture,  or  in  anything  else,  is  a  work  of  extra- 
ordinary difficulty.  Such  people  show  no  desire  for  progress, 
and  have  no  enterprise  in  taking  up  new  industries  or  under- 
takings. Unless,  therefore,  they  have  some  examples  before 
them — for  instance  European  or  Chinese  planters — they  take 
but  little  part  in  the  trades  which  furnish  exportable  products. 
A  glance  over  the  table  of  exports  in  the  Introduction  will 
illustrate  this.  Practically  the  entire  exports  of  cardamoms, 
cinchona,  cocoa,  coffee,  spices,  sugar,  and  tea,  and  a  large  part 
of  those  of  bananas,  coconut  products,  oranges,  tapioca,  and 
tobacco,  are  from  estates  owned  or  worked  by  Europeans  or 
Chinese,  the  important  articles  of  produce  the  export  trade  in 
which  is  mainly  in  native  hands  being  citronella  oil,  cinnamon, 
cotton  (and  this  is  the  worst  and  cheapest  cotton  on  the 
market),  dyes  and  tans,  jute,  lac,  opium,  palm-oil,  rice  and 
some  spices. 

Not  only  is  the  tropical  native  characterised  by  indolence, 
but  also  by  want  of  foresight.  The  man  who  looks  forward 
more  than  a  few  months  is  a  very  provident  individual  indeed. 
A  not  untypical  case  was  lately  furnished  in  a  certain  district  of 


CH.  Ill]  POPULATION   AND   LABOUR  13 

the  north  of  Ceylon.  Getting  a  very  large  crop  of  rice  in  1903, 
the  villagers  sat  down  to  eat  it,  and  grew  not  a  blade  until 
1905,  when  their  seed  rice  was  almost  all  that  they  had  left ; 
this  was  sown,  and  was  attacked  by  a  bad  outbreak  of  the 
"  arakkodiyan  "  caterpillar,  with  the  result  of  famine  in  these 
villages,  whose  inhabitants  had  practically  done  not  a  stroke 
of  work  for  two  years.  Famine  having  come,  of  course  the 
Government  was  called  upon  to  help  them  out  of  their 
difficulties. 

Ignorance,  often  of  the  most  pronounced  kind,  is  another 
prominent  quality  among  the  poorer  tropical  natives,  as  among 
the  poorer  folk  in  other  countries.  Poverty,  in  the  sense  of  lack 
of  any  money  with  which  to  buy  things,  is  also  a  very  strongly 
marked  feature  in  ordinary  village  society,  though  poverty  in 
the  sense  of  actual  dearth  of  things  to  eat  and  to  wear  is 
fortunately  much  less  common,  and  in  the  more  equatorial 
countries  like  Ceylon  and  Java  is  almost  non-existent. 

Other  obstacles  to  any  agricultural  progress  are  the  remark- 
able conservatism  of  the  people,  and  their  slavish  adherence  to 
ancient  custom,  their  fondness  for  home,  and  consequent  un- 
willingness to  move  into  new  districts  where  they  might  have 
a  better  chance  in  agricultural  matters,  and  their  prejudice 
against  anything  that  smacks  of  novelty.  All  these  matters 
will  be  considered  again  below. 

On  the  other  hand,  it  must  not  be  assumed  that  all  the 
agricultural  characters  of  the  tropical  races  are  necessarily  bad, 
though  they  may  be  far  inferior  to  the  white  races  or  to  the 
Chinese.  The  manner  in  which  they  are  willing  to  continue 
the  cultivation  of  rice  and  many  other  products,  though  "  there 
is  no  money  in  them,"  is  on  the  whole  distinctly  commendable 
— within  reasonable  limits — and  the  leanings  towards  coopera- 
tion that  many  eastern  races  at  any  rate  exhibit  are  in  the 
highest  degree  praiseworthy,  and  to  be  fostered  to  the  utmost. 
Cooperation  in  agriculture  is  becoming  one  of  the  most  impor- 
tant factors  in  its  progress  in  Europe  and  America.  In  Ceylon, 
to  take  an  example,  the  villagers  often  cooperate  in  the  care  of 
their  rice  fields,  sowing  each  man's  field  in  turn,  or  reaping  it 
in  turn,  instead  of  each  man  having  to  do  all  his  own  work. 


14  AGRICULTURE   IN   THE   TROPICS  [PT.  I 

By  a  judicious  handling  of  this  principle  of  cooperation,  there 
is  little  doubt  that  the  agricultural  prosperity  of  many 
eastern  villages  might  be  increased,  while  at  the  same  time 
those  villages  could  produce  products  for  export — a  thing  they 
at  present  do  not.  Were  they  for  example  to  devote  a  certain 
portion  of  the  "common  land" — a  thing  that  exists  in  very 
many  eastern  villages — to  the  growing  of  "  export "  crops,  a 
considerable  industry  might  gradually  come  into  being.  But  it 
is  highly  improbable  that  this  could  be  effected  at  present 
without  compulsion. 

In  sharp  contrast  to  the  tropical  races  are  the  settlers  among 
them  from  the  north — the  Europeans,  the  Americans,  the 
Chinese.  Of  these,  the  last  named  seern  to  be  the  only  race 
capable  of  settling  and  breeding  in  the  tropics  without  any 
serious  loss  of  stamina,  for  the  "  country  bred  "  Europeans  or 
Americans  of  the  West  or  East  Indies  have  to  an  appreciable 
extent  the  character  of  the  native  races  among  whom  they 
were  brought  up.  The  planter  born  and  bred  in  England, 
and  retiring  thither  in  his  old  age,  is  often  superior  in  energy 
and  enterprise  to  the  planter  born  and  bred  in  the  tropics, 
while  at  the  same  time  he  has  the  enormous  advantage  of 
a  certain  capital  at  his  back,  for  he  does  not  go  out  to  the 
tropics  without  it. 

In  such  densely  peopled  countries  as  India  and  Java  the 
people  have  necessarily  to  work  comparatively  hard  to  acquire 
a  living  at  all,  and  when  the  density,  as  in  parts  of  Madras,  is 
so  great  that  the  people  live  upon  the  borders  of  famine,  they 
are  more  or  less  willing  to  emigrate  to  other  countries  where 
they  can  get  greater  wages,  though  they  are  rarely  prepared 
even  then  to  settle  down  in  such  countries.  The  hundreds  of 
thousands  of  Tamil  coolies  who  go  from  South  India  to  Ceylon 
to  work  upon  the  tea  estates  and  at  other  occupations  practi- 
cally all  go  back  again  at  one  time  or  another.  Their  great 
object  is  to  save  enough  money  in  their  temporary  home  to  be 
able  to  return  to  India  after  a  few  years,  there  buy  land  and 
settle  down  in  their  old  home.  Even  the  bulk  of  the  Indian 
coolies  who  go  so  far  afield  as  Africa  and  the  West  Indies 
ultimately  return  to  their  old  country.  Only  in  Mauritius  and 


CH.  Ill]  POPULAlTOW^SWD  LABOUR  15 


in  Guiana  is  there  any  important  native  population  of  British 
Indians,  and  even  in  those  countries  a  few  hundred  thousand 
is  the  total  after  many  years. 

Coolies  —  to  use  the  common  Indian  word  for  men  upon 
daily  pay  —  who  go  from  the  densely  peopled  countries,  having 
learnt  at  home  to  work  comparatively  hard,  are  as  a  rule  ready 
to  do  a  fair  amount  of  hard  work,  whereas  the  actual  inhabitants 
of  thinly  or  insufficiently  peopled  countries  are  as  a  rule  very 
"lazy,"  nature  being  so  bountiful  to  them  that  they  do  not 
need  to  work  hard  to  make  a  living.  It  is  but  comparatively 
rarely  that  one  finds  an  individual  that  has  ambition  to  "better 
himself,"  and  willingness  to  work  hard  for  that  end.  It 
therefore  follows  that  in  thinly  inhabited  countries  it  is 
necessary  to  import  labour  if  any  serious  work  is  to  be  done, 
especially  by  white  men,  or  if  any  agricultural  progress  is  to  be 
made.  Thus  Ceylon1  and  the  Federated  Malay  States  import 
labour,  the  former  from  India,  the  latter  from  India,  China  and 
Java  ;  the  more  thinly  populated  West  Indian  islands  import 
labour  from  the  more  thickly  populated  islands  and  from  India  ; 
Hawaii  from  Japan  ;  whereas  India  and  Java  do  all  their  own 
work  with  their  own  inhabitants. 

The  following  figures  of  value  of  exports  from  the  different 
tropical  countries  (omitting  mining  products)  will  serve  roughly 
to  illustrate  the  point  we  have  been  endeavouring  to  indicate  : 

Value  of  Exports  in  £.     Population 

Ceylon,  1902  7,382,111  3,703,6152 

Jamaica,  1900-1  1,797,077  745,1043 

Sandwich  Islands,  1902-3        5,419,308  100,0004 

Siam,  1902  4,533,972  12,000,000 

Manila,  1901  1,861,941  5,500,000 

Indo-china,  1902  6,153,142  22,000,000 

1  Ceylon  (or  at  least  S.W.  Ceylon)  is  not  thinly  populated,  but  the  Sinhalese 
are  averse  to  hard  or  regular  work,  which  has  therefore  to  be  done  by  the  Tamils 
imported  from  South  India,  especially  in  the  colder  "up  country"  districts 
where  tea  is  chiefly  cultivated,  and  in  which  the  Sinhalese  do  not  willingly  live. 

2  Export  trade  created  by  aid  of  about  450,000  imported  coolies,  and  about 
400,000  natives,  the  other  natives  having  nothing  to  do  with  it. 

3  A  large  part  of  the  native  population  engaged  in  the  export  trade  in  fruit  ; 
many  English  planters. 

4  The  whole  population   (largely  imported   Japanese  coolies)   engaged  in 
growing  sugar,  etc.,  for  export  under  American  planters. 


16 


[PT.  I 


CHAPTER  IV. 

TRANSPORT  AND   CAPITAL. 

Transport.  Without  some  means  of  transporting  goods  to 
a  more  or  less  distant  market,  agriculture  cannot  be  conducted 
upon  the  large  scale,  and  the  cultivator  must  consume  his  own 
products.  If  transport  is  difficult  and  costly,  he  is  necessarily 
limited  in  his  markets,  whereas  good  and  cheap  transport 
multiplies  the  value  of  his  produce  by  extending  his  market. 
Until  this  is  provided,  it  is  quite  idle  to  expect  any  extensive 
agriculture  to  be  carried  on,  unless — as  occasionally  but  very 
rarely  happens — the  produce  is  so  valuable  that  there  is  still  a 
profit  left  after  meeting  the  expenses  of  costly  carriage.  This 
might  be  the  case,  for  example,  with  india-rubber  at  the 
present  time,  and  is  the  case  with  the  gutta-percha  collected 
in  the  Malayan  forests,  though  this  collection  cannot  be  called 
agriculture. 

The  most  primitive  mode  of  transport  at  present  existing, 
and  one  very  common  in  Africa  at  least,  is  the  carriage  of  goods 
upon  the  heads  of  coolies  along  narrow  paths  winding  through 
the  jungle  or  over  the  plain  from  one  village  to  another  and  to 
the  nearest  town.  As  one  man  can  only  carry  a  moderate  load, 
and  for  a  moderate  distance  in  one  day,  it  is  obvious  that  this 
method,  apart  from  other  disadvantages,  must  be  very  costly, 
and  consequently  that  it  can  only  open  up  distant  markets  to  a 
very  limited  extent,  the  profits  in  most  forms  of  agriculture 
being  insufficient  to  stand  heavy  expenditure  upon  carriage. 

A  step  in  advance  of  this  is  to  have  carriage  along  the  paths 
by  means  of  pack  animals,  usually  bulls  or  ponies.  By  this 
means  larger  loads  can  be  carried,  and  at  a  cheaper  rate,  and 


CH.  IV]  TRANSPORT  AND   CAPITAL  17 

this  method  is  as  yet  not  uncommon  in  many  parts  of  the 
tropics,  especially  where  the  cost  of  making  proper  roads  is 
very  great. 

The  first  real  step  towards  modern  transport  facilities  is, 
however,  the  provision*  of  roads  along  which  wheeled  vehicles 
can  be  driven.  By  this  means  transport  is  rendered  much 
cheaper  and  less  precarious,  and  most  of  the  more  advanced 
countries  in  the  tropics  have  now  reached  this  stage  to  a 
greater  or  less  extent.  Some,  such  as  Ceylon,  the  West  Indies, 
India,  have  now  got  a  very  widespread  and  perfect  system  of 
roads,  forming  quite  a  network  over  the  country. 

But  with  the  interest  in  tropical  agriculture  that  is  now 
being  felt  in  many  quarters,  and  the  extension  of  agricultural 
departments,  and  other  organisations  for  the  encouragement  of 
agriculture,  it  will  probably  gradually  be  found  that  the  present 
systems  of  roads,  perfect  though  they  may  be,  are  altogether 
insufficient  for  the  purpose.  If  the  villager  is  to  grow  "  com- 
mercial" crops,  he  too,  even  more  than  the  more  wealthy 
proprietor,  must  be  provided  with  cheap  transport  to  the 
markets,  instead  of  the  present  system  of  footpaths  and  coolie 
carriage.  In  a  report  upon  the  agriculture  of  the  Federated 
Malay  States  we  have  pointed  this  out,  and  suggested  that  the 
whole  country  should  be  marked  out  by  road  reservations  at 
distances  of  about  a  mile  apart  in  each  direction,  somewhat 
as  has  already  been  done  in  the  Western  United  States  of 
America.  There  is  no  need  actually  to  make  the  roads  in 
these  reservations,  but  the  latter  should  be  there  before  the 
country  fills  up,  when  it  would  be  very  much  more  difficult 
and  costly  to  make  them.  By  this  means  the  country  would 
become  broken  up  into  blocks  of  about  a  square  mile  each,  so 
that  every  portion  of  land  would  have  access  to  a  public  road, 
for  of  course  where  the  blocks  were  to  be  sold  in  small  lots, 
roads  should  be  also  reserved  into  the  middle  portions  of  them. 
In  this  way  the  purchaser  of  any  kind  of  agricultural  produce 
would  have  easy  access  to  the  places  from  which  he  has  to  buy 
it,  or  the  producer  easy  access  to  the  markets  where  he  has  to 
sell  it,  and  so  a  considerable  step  would  have  been  taken  in 
agricultural  progress,  for  the  small  producer  cannot  afford  to 
w.  2 


18  AGRICULTURE   IN   THE   TROPICS  [FT.  I 

carry  his  produce  long  and  toilsome  journeys  to  market.  This 
is  a  matter  requiring  early  and  careful  consideration  in  all 
tropical  countries,  especially  those  with  "  spare  "  land. 

With  the  advent  of  the  motor  car  and  of  the  motor  lorry, 
a  new  era  seems  to  be  about  to  dawn  with  regard  to  agricul- 
tural progress  in  the  more  rural  districts,  for  these  vehicles  will 
be  able  to  collect  produce  more  rapidly,  and  from  greater 
distances  from  the  towns,  than  the  horse  or  bullock  vehicles  as 
yet  in  use  upon  the  roads. 

Railroads  form  a  yet  further  stage  in  progress,  and  go, 
generally  speaking,  with  an  export  trade.  They  are  now  very 
largely  developed  in  India,  and  to  a  considerable  extent  in 
Ceylon,  the  Federated  Malay  States,  the  larger  West  Indian 
Islands,  and  Java,  but  in  the  remainder  of  the  tropical  zone 
they  are  in  general  conspicuous  by  their  absence.  To  work  a 
railroad  with  financial  success  of  course  means  that  there  must 
be  a  considerable  amount  of  cultivation  in  the  country  which 
requires  to  send  its  produce  to  distant  markets — unless  there 
is,  as  in  the  Federated  Malay  States,  a  considerable  mining 
industry — and  as  yet  this  only  exists  in  comparatively  few 
countries,  and  those  the  countries  which  have  previously  been 
opened  up  by  means  of  roads. 

Lastly,  when  by  means  of  roads  and  railways  the  agricultural 
produce  has  reached  the  port,  it  must  be  carried  away  by  some 
cheap  and  efficient  means  of  transport.  This  is  already  provided 
for  the  great  majority  of  tropical  countries  in  the  numerous 
lines  of  well  appointed  cargo  steamships  which  ply  almost 
throughout  the  world. 

We  have  not  yet  mentioned,  except  in  connection  with 
steamships,  water  carriage,  which  almost  forms  a  genus  of 
transport  to  itself.  In  a  very  large  number  of  tropical  coun- 
tries, the  streams  are  sufficiently  large,  and  free  from  rapids,  to 
be  available  for  the  passage  of  at  any  rate  small  boats.  Lower 
down  larger  boats  or  even  steamers  can  ply  upon  them,  and  on 
the  whole,  though  slow,  this  is  perhaps  the  cheapest  mode  of 
transport,  whilst  also  available  at  a  very  early  stage  in  the 
development  of  a  country.  Thus  it  is  that  the  great  valley  of 
the  Amazon  has  been  able  to  export  many  articles  of  produce 


CH.  IV]  TRANSPORT  AND   CAPITAL  19 

in  considerable  quantities,  though  it  is  quite  unprovided  with  a 
proper  system  of  roads. 

Apart  from  this  "  natural "  water  carriage,  there  is  also  a 
very  important  form  of  water  transport,  in  artificially  made 
ditches  or  canals.  This  is  very  well  seen  in  the  coastal  lands 
of  the  Federated  Malay  States,  where  the  great  sugar  estates 
have  cut  extensive  systems  of  canals,  upon  which  the  sugar 
cane  is  dragged  to  the  factory  in  low  open  boats,  and  manure 
and  other  products  are  also  transported.  This  method  of  trans- 
port is  very  valuable,  and  gives  these  estates  a  measurable 
advantage  over  those  of  the  West  Indies  and  Java,  where  the 
cane  has  to  be  carried  by  rail  or  by  cart.  Canals  are  largely 
developed  in  India,  Ceylon  (where  they  were  made  in  Dutch 
times),  Guiana,  and  elsewhere,  and  form  a  valuable  means  of 
transport  for  any  but  very  perishable  goods. 

Capital.  This  subject  only  requires  a  very  brief  mention, 
but  must  not  be  omitted,  as  agriculture  largely  depends  upon 
the  proper  supply  of  capital ;  so  long  as  no  capital  is  forthcoming, 
so  long  can  there  be  nothing  but  the  smallest  peasant  industries, 
so  long  can  there  be  no,  export  trade  worth  mentioning,  and  so 
long  might  the  country,  so  far  as  the  remainder  of  the  world  is 
concerned,  just  as  well  be  non-existent. 

The  great  bulk  of  the  capital  sunk  in  large  agricultural 
enterprises  in  the  tropics  is  of  course  from  Europe  or  America. 
The  planting  enterprises  of  Ceylon,  India,  Java,  Hawaii,  and 
other  places  are  mainly  financed  from  "  home."  At  the  same 
time,  there  is  a  small  and  steadily  increasing  amount  of  local 
capital  available  in  the  more  wealthy  tropical  countries,  like 
India,  Ceylon,  and  Java,  and  this  capital  is  showing  an  increasing 
tendency  to  invest  in  agricultural  industries. 

Capital  will  not  be  invested  in  any  country  until  there  are 
satisfactory  conditions  as  regards  land,  labour,  and  transport. 
As  will  be  pointed  out  elsewhere,  these  conditions  were  first 
fully  satisfied  in  the  old  slavery  days  in  the  West  Indies,  and 
the  great  sugar  industry  sprang  up  there.  With  the  abolition 
of  slavery,  labour  ceased  to  be  in  a  satisfactory  state,  and 
Ceylon,  with  plentiful  cheap  labour  at  her  very  doors,  took  the 
place  of  the  West  Indies  as  a  field  for  the  investment  of  British 

9 9 


20  AGRICULTURE   IN   THE  TROPICS  [PT.  I 

capital,  and  has  held  it  ever  since,  though  many  rivals  have 
sprung  up.  Why  the  West  Indies  should  still  fail  to  attract 
British  capital  is  not  altogether  obvious,  but  probably  it  is  on 
account  of  the  labour  conditions  ;  the  negro  labourer  is  unsatis- 
factory as  regards  regularity,  and  compared  with  the  coolie 
labourer  of  the  eastern  countries,  is  very  expensive,  costing  Is. 
or  more  a  day,  against  4>d.  to  8d.  for  a  coolie.  At  the  same 
time,  it  must  be  pointed  out  that  the  general  cost  of  labour  is 
showing  a  decided  tendency  to  level  up,  and  it  will  probably 
not  be  long  before  the  very  cheap  countries,  like  Ceylon,  have 
to  pay  more  for  their  labour,  and  this  will  have  an  equalising 
effect.  Already,  Ceylon's  new  rival,  the  Federated  Malay 
States,  in  which  rubber  planting  is  going  on  very  rapidly,  is 
having  to  pay  60°/0  more  for  her  labour  than  Ceylon,  though 
she  taps  the  same  source  in  southern  India,  while  at  the  same 
time  she  has  to  allow  the  coolies  to  work  only  for  an  eight-hours 
day,  as  against  the  ten-hours  day  of  Ceylon.  This  is  already 
producing  an  effect  in  Ceylon,  and  it  seems  not  unlikely  that 
the  latter  country  may  ultimately  have  to  pay  more  for  her 
labour,  or  allow  shorter  hours  of  work,  or  both.  At  some  future 
time,  therefore,  when  labour  conditions  become  more  even 
throughout  the  tropics,  it  may  be  possible  to  get  British  capital 
again  to  go  in  important  quantity  to  the  West  Indies. 

Not  only  is  capital  required  for  the  large  enterprises,  it  is 
also  required,  in  small  quantity  it  is  true,  for  the  small,  and  the 
practically  absolute  lack  of  capital,  even  a  few  shillings,  is  the 
great  bar  to  progress  in  village  or  peasant  agriculture.  Even 
as  it  is,  in  perhaps  the  majority  of  cases,  the  small  crops  growing 
upon  the  land  are  mortgaged  to  money-lenders,  who  have 
advanced  small  sums  at  a  rate  of  interest  from  40  %  upwards. 
Serious  attempts  to  get  over  this  difficulty  are  now  being  made 
in  many  parts  of  the  tropics,  usually  by  the  establishment  of 
Cooperative  Credit  Societies,  upon  the  lines  so  successful  in 
Europe.  It  is  found,  however,  that  the  villager  does  not  take 
altogether  kindly  to  these  organisations,  which  are  something 
new  in  his  limited  experience,  and  there  seems  a  likelihood  that 
the  Cooperative  Seed  Supply  Stores,  which  are  in  operation  in 
Ceylon,  will  better  meet  the  difficulty.  We  shall  consider  these 
matters  in  detail  in  Part  III,  under  the  head  of  village  agriculture. 


21 


CHAPTER  V. 

DRAINAGE   AND   IRRIGATION. 

As  a  rule,  owing  to  the  heavy  nature  of  the  rainfall,  drainage 
is  a  matter  of  necessity  in  the  tropics,  more  especially  nearer  to 
the  equator,  where  more  rain  falls,  and  on  irrigated  land,  where 
water  is  artificially  supplied.  While  in  North  India  drains  of 
the  kind  seen  in  Europe  are  at  times  employed,  as  a  rule,  if 
there  be  any  drains  at  all,  they  are  simply  open  watercourses 
cut  at  intervals.  On  hilly  ground  they  follow  comparatively 
gentle  slopes  around  the  declivities,  and  do  not  run  straight 
down  the  slopes. 

Occasionally,  as  for  instance  in  the  coastal  region  of  the 
Malay  Peninsula,  such  drains  are  not  enough,  on  account  of  the 
very  heavy  rainfall,  the  very  flat  nature  of  the  country,  and  its 
very  slight  elevation  above  sea  level.  In  such  cases  large 
drains,  often  in  fact  small  canals,  have  to  be  cut  at  fairly 
frequent  intervals,  and  it  becomes  a  matter  of  great  importance, 
before  opening  land,  to  make  sure  that  it  will  be  possible  to 
drain  it.  The  first  comers  of  course  will  be  all  right,  but  later 
comers  may  have  to  buy  up  land  from  their  predecessors  to  get 
their  own  drains  through  to  the  sea  or  to  a  river.  In  such 
cases  we  have  suggested  that  the  Government  should  at  an 
early  date  mark  out  the  country  into  approximate  squares  of  a 
mile  or  so  by  lines  of  reservation  for  drains  (which  would  of 
course  also  ultimate  supply  canal  transport),  just  as  we  have 
suggested  for  roads,  so  that  a  purchaser  of  land  may  find  that 
it  abuts  somewhere  upon  a  drainage  reservation,  along  which 
the  Government  will  then  make  a  drain  to  convey  away  his 
surplus  water.  Of  course  in  such  cases  land  would  only  be 
sold  near  to  existing  drains,  not  far  away  back  in  the  forest. 


22  AGRICULTURE   IN   THE  TROPICS  [PT.  I 

Irrigation  is  a  matter  of  great  importance  in  the  tropics, 
because  near  the  equator,  where  the  rainfall  is  plentiful  enough, 
the  standard  crop  is  rice,  which  requires  definite-  irrigation,  and 
because  further  away  from  the  equator  the  rains  only  fall  for 
part  of  the  year,  and  are  often  uncertain,  so  that  without  a 
guaranteed  water  supply  the  raising  of  crops  would  be  a  very 
precarious  matter. 

In  some  places,  where  there  are  no  streams,  the  rain  water 
is  simply  held  in  the  fields  by  damming  them  up,  but  as  a  rule 
the  water  is  obtained  from  the  streams,  little  or  big,  in  the 
neighbourhood,  by  damming  them  up  by  what  are  often  called 
anicuts  (weirs),  and  thus  diverting  the  water  into  the  fields. 
These  auicuts  may  be  of  all  sizes,  from  the  tiny  dams  in  use  in 
southern  Ceylon,  of  a  few  yards  in  length  across  a  little  brook, 
to  the  stupendous  anicuts  across  some  of  the  large  rivers  in 
India,  and  which  irrigate  hundreds  of  square  miles,  often  at  a 
great  distance. 

By  means  of  the  anicut,  the  water  of  the  stream,  which 
would  otherwise  simply  run  to  waste,  is  prevented  from  doing 
so  before  it  has  done  all  the  irrigation  required  of  it.  It  is 
diverted  into  a  channel  which  only  falls  at  the  minimum  slope, 
and  is  consequently  made  to  water  as  much  land  as  possible,  to 
which  it  is  conveyed  by  a  system  of  canals  and  sluices.  The 
canals  continually  subdivide,  and  form  a  system  not  unlike  the 
branches  of  a  tree.  In  the  simple  irrigation  of  a  small  valley, 
as  in  the  low  country  of  south  Ceylon,  no  irrigation  sluices  or 
gates  are  definitely  made,  but  the  water  is  simply  dammed  up 
or  diverted  as  required  by  hand  labour  with  piles  of  mud.  In 
the  great  irrigation  works  of  India,  on  the  other  hand,  most 
elaborate  systems  of  gates,  sluices,  and  canals  are  made,  and 
the  water  is  distributed  through  these  under  skilled  super- 
intendence. 

At  first  the  Indian  Government  only  made  the  main 
channels,  and  left  the  cultivators  to  construct  the  minor 
channels  for  the  actual  distribution,  but  this  led  to  great 
abuses  and  serious  waste,  and  now  the  whole  system  of  canals 
is  made  by  the  Government  in  the  first  instance. 

Where  the  water  has  thus  been  provided  by  the  Govern- 


CH.  V]  DRAINAGE  AND   IRRIGATION  23 

ment  at  a  great  cost,  an  irrigation  rate  is  charged  upon  all  the 
land  watered  by  it,  and  in  many  parts  of  India  the  irrigation 
works  pay  a  good  dividend  through  these  rates.  Thus  in 
parts  of  Madras,  the  rate  is  Rs.  7J  (10s.)  an  acre  a  year,  and 
for  this  a  certain  fixed  amount  of  water  is  allowed.  In  the 
south  of  Ceylon,  on  the  other  hand,  where  the  work  of  making 
the  irrigation  dams,  etc.,  is  simple  and  cheap,  and  is  done  by 
the  people  themselves,  there  is  a  terrible  waste  of  water,  though 
luckily  there  is  so  much  rain  that  this  very  rarely  matters. 

One  of  the  most  wonderful  systems  of  irrigation  that  ever 
existed  is  that  which  was  put  into  practice  in  the  north  of 
Ceylon  in  the  early  days  of  the  Sinhalese  monarchy,  2000  years 
ago,  which  fell  into  entire  ruin  during  the  Tamil  invasions  from 
700  to  1300  A.D.,  and  which  is  no\y,  at  great  cost,  being  slowly 
restored  by  the  Ceylon  Government.  The  north  of  Ceylon  is  a 
"  dry  "  country,  i.e.  it  only  gets  rain  for  about  three  months  in 
the  year,  and  must  have  irrigation.  Almost  every  valley  was 
dammed  up,  the  country  being  gently  rolling,  by  an  earthwork 
or  "  bund"  within  20  or  30  miles  of  its  head,  and  other  bunds, 
gradually  getting  longer  and  longer,  and  less  and  less  high  as 
the  sea  was  approached,  were  made  across  the  valley  at  intervals 
of  a  few  miles,  lower  down.  During  the  rainy  season  these 
reservoirs  became  filled.  The  overflow  from  the  first  "  tank  " 
(to  give  the  reservoirs  the  name  by  which  they  are  known  in 
Ceylon),  together  with  the  waste  water  from  the  rice  fields 
below  it,  was  of  course  caught  in  the  second  tank,  and  so  on. 
Not  only  so,  but  from  the  uppermost  tank  a  canal  was  taken  at 
the  highest  possible  level,  winding  round  the  side  valleys  at  as 
gentle  a  slope  as  possible,  and  feeding  the  tanks  that  were  also 
made  in  these  valleys.  In  this  way  almost  the  whole  of  every 
valley  was  made  irrigable,  and  there  was  practically  no  water 
allowed  to  reach  the  sea  until  it  had  done  the  maximum  of 
work.  Some  of  the  tanks  were  of  enormous  size ;  Kalawewa, 
for  example,  now  restored,  has  a  bund  about  6  miles  long,  and 
60  feet  high  at  the  centre  of  the  valley,  while  the  tank  is  about 
5  miles  by  2,  and  in  the  old  days,  when  the  water  was  retained 
at  a  higher  level,  was  about  three  times  that  size,  while  other 
tanks  are  even  larger.  The  canal  on  the  north  side  of  Kalawewa 


24  AGRICULTURE    IN  THE  TROPICS  [FT.  I 

runs  for  55  miles  along  the  side  valleys,  feeding  all  their  tanks, 
and  is  about  60  feet  wide. 

In  many  districts  irrigation  has  to  be  from  wells,  and  every 
form  of  appliance  is  in  use,  from  simple  hand  carriage  of  the 
water — the  well  being  made  with  a  sloping  side  to  enable  one 
to  walk  down  to  the  water — through  more  and  more  perfect 
raising  implements  worked  by  bullocks  or  by  well  sweeps,  to 
modern  continuous  chain  pumps,  etc.  This  form  of  irrigation 
is  particularly  suited  to  gardening  work,  tobacco  or  vegetable 
cultivation,  and  so  on,  and  the  arrangements  for  distributing 
the  water  are  often  very  perfect,  the  "  flower  beds  " — if  such  a 
term  may  be  used, — being  made  wj.th  little  banks  round  them, 
and  the  water  led  to  them  in  little  canals. 

Irrigation  by  wind  mill -pumps,  such  as  is  so  common  in  the 
United  States,  is  almost  unknown  in  the  tropics,  for  the  wind 
in  the  driest  weather  is  often  absent,  and  blows  hardest  in  the 
rains.  Partly  in  consequence  of  this,  pumps  worked  by  oil  or 
gas  engines  are  coming  in  in  some  places. 

The  necessary  concomitant  of  irrigation  is  drainage,  and 
care  must  be  taken  to  give  the  soil  no  more  water  than  will 
drain  away  before  the  next  application  of  water.  Heavy 
clayey  soils  are  thus  in  general  unsuited  to  irrigation,  which 
succeeds  better  on  friable  soils.  A  good  deal  of  trouble  some- 
times arises  from  the  top  layers  of  the  soil  becoming  alkaline, 
often  for  want  of  proper  drainage.  Irrigation  results  in  good 
and  reliable  cropping,  but  is  of  course  exhaustive  to  the  soil, 
which  will  probably  want  manure  much  sooner1. 

1  As  many  who  have  read  the  manuscript  have  complained  of  the  absence  of 
description  of  the  irrigation  works  of  Egypt,  the  north  of  India,  South  Africa, 
etc.,  the  opportunity  may  be  taken  to  point  out  that  none  of  these  are  tropical. 


25 


CHAPTER  VI. 

TOOLS,   TILLAGE,    MANURING,   CROPPING,  ETC. 

Tools.  The  more  complex  and  efficient  tools,  such  as  are 
so  largely  superseding  hand  labour  in  Europe  and  America,  are 
but  little  employed  in  the  tropics.  The  reasons  for  this  are 
several,  the  chief  being  that  hand  labour  has  hitherto  been  so 
cheap  that  there  has  been  but  little  demand  for  labour  saving, 
that  the  complex  tools  require  good  workmen  to  use  them,  and 
good  mechanics  to  mend  them,  neither  being  readily  forth- 
coming in  the  tropics,  and  that  the  better  tools  are  in  general 
too  expensive  for  the  ordinary  cultivator  to  buy,  while  coopera- 
tive purchase,  such  as  is  so  common  in  France,  Belgium,  and 
other  countries,  has  not  yet  come  in. 

For  simple  tillage  of  the  ground,  the  most  common  tool  in 
the  more  equatorial  countries  is  probably  the  large  hoe,  or 
mainoti,  as  it  is  called  by  the  Tamil  coolies  of  Ceylon,  while 
further  north  the  plough  is  far  more  common.  The  mamoti  is 
a  very  strong  and  heavy  hoe,  with  a  handle  about  3  feet  long, 
and  a  blade  at  right  angles  to  it,  9  inches  wide,  and  7  inches 
deep,  but  varying  according  to  the  work  it  is  designed  for, 
those  used  in  wet  rice  fields,  for  instance,  being  much  larger 
and  with  longer  handles.  With  it  the  coolie  digs,  by  swinging  it 
like  a  pickaxe,  and  he  also  uses  it  for  gentle  digging,  scraping, 
and  for  other  purposes.  The  spade  is  hardly  ever  used. 

The  plough,  which  is  used  all  over  India,  and  in  rice 
cultivation  in  the  equatorial  countries,  is  usually  a  very  primi- 
tive instrument,  as  a  glance  at  the  picture  will  show.  It  consists 
essentially  of  two  pieces  of  wood  fastened  together  at  right 
angles,  with  a  metal  point  to  the  horizontal  one,  and  drawn  by 


26  AGRICULTURE   IN   THE   TROPICS  [PT.  I 

bullocks  in  dry  fields,  buffaloes  in  wet  ones.  It  performs  its 
work,  however,  with  some  degree  of  efficiency,  and  is  both  very 
cheap  and  very  easy  to  mend  if  anything  should  go  wrong,  two 
points  which  appeal  with  very  great  force  to  the  ordinary 
tropical  villager,  with  little  or  no  money,  and  far  from  any 
skilled  help.  It  does  not  however  cultivate  deeply,  but  only  to 
a  depth  of  3 — 8  inches,  and  does  not  turn  the  soil  over. 

Cultivators,  in  the  American  sense  of  the  word,  i.e.  machines 
with  a  number  of  teeth  to  tear  up  the  soil,  and  drawn  along  by 
hand  or  by  horses  or  bullocks,  are  as  yet  but  little  employed, 
being  too  complex,  too  expensive,  and  too  difficult  to  mend  for 
the  ordinary  villager  to  use  them,  and  but  little  wanted  yet  on 
the  ordinary  European  estate,  on  account  of  the  cheapness  of 
hand  labour.  Locally  made  cultivators,  with  the  parts  of  wood 
tied  together  with  string,  are,  however,  in  use  in  parts  of 
Madras  and  elsewhere  in  India,  as  also  are  locally  made  seed- 
drills  and  other  tools.  The  harrow  is  commonly  replaced  by  a 
log  of  wood  with  or  without  a  horizontal  metal  blade  in  front 
of  it,  drawn  across  the  field,  and  increased  in  weight  by  the 
driver  standing  upon  it. 

The  pickaxe  is  commonly  used  for  digging  holes,  removing 
stone,  and  for  similar  purposes.  The  rake  is  also  not  uncommonly 
used,  in  the  same  way  as  in  Europe.  A  very  useful  tool, 
especially  in  the  West  Indies,  is  the  cutlass,  with  which  weeds 
are  cut  down,  trees  pruned  or  lopped,  and  even  holes  dug. 
Grain  is  usually  cut  with  the  sickle,  and  in  fact  all  tools  are 
both  simple  and  primitive. 

Manuring  is  in  general  just  as  necessary  in  the  tropics  as 
in  the  temperate  zones,  if  good  results  are  to  be  obtained  for 
any  length  of  time  on  the  same  ground,  and  it  is  the  saving  of 
the  cost  and  trouble  of  manuring  which  is  one  of  the  most 
attractive  features  to  the  ordinary  unthinking  villager  in  the 
practice  of  chena,  described  in  Chapter  I.  Both  European 
planters  and  natives  alike  prefer  to  get  new  forest  land  to  plant 
upon,  for  it  is  so  much  richer  in  plant  food,  but  of  course  such 
land  becomes  every  year  more  and  more  scarce,  and  in  general 
it  may  be  said  that  every  tropical  cultivation  requires  manure. 


CH.  VI]       TOOLS,  TILLAGE,   MANURING,   CROPPING,   ETC.  27 

Whether  it  gets  the  manure,  however  much  it  may  require 
it,  is  a  question  of  another  kind.  Perhaps  the  majority  of 
tropical  natives  are  unable  to  afford  any  manure  worth  mention. 
For  instance  those  of  the  greater  part  of  India  use  cow  dung, 
which  is  almost  the  only  available  manure,  as  fuel,  and  have 
little  else  that  could  be  used  for  this  purpose.  The  slow  but 
certain  result  is  the  gradual  impoverishment  of  the  soil,  for  it 
is  rarely  that  its  owner  or  cultivator  can  allow  it  to  lie  fallow 
for  a  time. 

Even  in  a  country  like  Ceylon,  where  vegetable  matter  is 
cheap  and  easily  obtained,  manuring  is  by  no  means  common 
among  the  natives,  though  in  the  far  north  of  the  island  large 
quantities  of  green  stuff  of  various  kinds  are  collected  for 
manuring  purposes.  But  on  European  planting  estates  a 
different  state  of  things  is  evident,  especially  in  the  East, 
where  for  years  the  planters  have  had  the  advantage  of  skilled 
scientific  advice  in  manuring.  Nearly  all  Ceylon  tea  estates 
are  now  manured  with  great  care  and  economy,  with  the 
result  that  the  export  of  tea,  which  seemed  to  be  reaching  its 
maximum  at  about  135  millions  of  pounds,  has  gone  up  to  a 
new  maximum  of  about  170  millions.  In  India  too,  tea 
manuring  has  reached  a  high  pitch  of  perfection,  and  in  the 
West  Indies  manuring  is  carefully  applied  to  sugar,  cacao  and 
other  plantations. 

While  in  general  farm-yard  manure  is  the  best,  in  practice 
there  is  not  enough  of  it,  and  artificial  manures,  such  as 
bone-dust,  basic  slag,  cotton-seed  cake,  etc.,  are  used.  The 
constituents  usually  lacking  in  soils  are  lime,  potash,  and 
nitrogen. 

A  method  of  manuring,  which  is  very  popular  in  Ceylon, 
Java,  and  India,  is  what  is  called  "green  manuring."  This 
consists  in  growing,  between  the  rows  of  the  permanent  crop, 
rows  or  broadcasts  of  some  plant  belonging  to  the  family 
of  the  Leguminosae  (peas,  beans,  clovers,  vetches,  etc.),  which 
have  the  property  of  taking  up  nitrogen  (a  constituent  in  which 
the  soils  of  the  tropics,  owing  to  their  lack  of  humus,  are 
generally  deficient)  from  the  air.  After  they  have  grown  to 
full  size,  the  plants  are  cut  down,  and  oftenest  ploughed  or  dug 


28  AGRICULTURE  IN  THE  TROPICS  [PT.  I 

into  the  ground.     In  this  way  they  increase  the  contents  of  the 
soil  in  organic  matter  and  nitrogen  at  a  very  small  cost. 

Another  very  common  method  of  manuring  in  the  East  is 
folding  cattle,  goats,  or  sheep  upon  the  land,  during  the  drier 
weather.  A  flock  of  100  sheep  will  sufficiently  manure  an  acre 
in  about  20  nights. 

Rotation  of  Crops,  with  which  so  much  is  done  to  get 
better  returns  in  agriculture  in  colder  climates,  is  systematically 
practised  in  Java,  Ceylon,  India,  the  West  Indies,  etc.  The 
great  difficulty  in  the  way  of  its  general  practice  is  the  fact  that 
so  many  of  the  tropical  crops,  e.g.  tea,  coffee,  rubber,  cacao, 
coconuts,  are  perennials,  and  consequently  rotation  is  impossible 
with  them,  or  that  they  are  crops  like  rice,  with  which  rotation 
is  difficult.  In  Java  the  rice  crop  is  regularly  rotated  with 
various  vegetable  and  other  crops  grown  on  the  fields  when  dry. 

Mixture  of  Crops,  which  seems  to  bring  in  its  train 
some  of  the  advantages  of  rotation,  is  very  common,  especially 
in  the  more  equatorial  parts  of  the  tropics,  such  as  southern 
Ceylon,  Malaya,  the  West  Indies,  etc.  In  Ceylon,  for  example, 
the  great  bulk  of  the  country  inhabited  by  the  Sinhalese  may  be 
roughly  divided  into  "high  lands"  and  "paddy  (rice)  fields,"  the 
former  being  the  higher  lying  lands,  the  ridges  between  the 
valleys  in  fact,  which  are  not  capable  of  being  reached  by  the 
irrigation  water.  Upon  them  the  villagers  grow  a  great  mixture 
of  crops,  from  trees  such  as  coconuts,  mangoes,  jaks,  silk-cottons, 
kituls,  etc.,  down  to  herbaceous  plants  such  as  yams,  etc.  Usually 
they  leave  the  ground  covered  with  a  miscellaneous  turf  of 
weeds  and  grass,  and  the  cattle  graze  upon  it.  The  plants  are 
not  arranged  in  any  definite  way,  nor  are  two  of  the  same  kind 
necessarily  put  together,  but  they  are  simply  left  anyhow  upon 
the  land,  much  as  they  might  grow  in  a  jungle  containing  only 
those  species.  Now  the  various  plants  of  course  take  different 
quantities  of  food  stuffs  from  the  soil — some  take  much  lime, 
some  little,  some  much  potash,  some  little,  and  so  on,  so  that  it 
is  quite  probable  that  the  total  result  is  to  drain  the  soil  of  its 
food  materials  at  a  rate  proportionate  to  what  it  can  supply, 


CH.  Vl]       TOOLS,   TILLAGE,   MANURING,   CROPPING,    ETC.  29 

and  thus  to  exhaust  it  at  a  far  slower  rate  than  would  one 
single  crop,  which  would  use  up  some  single  constituent  of  the 
soil  at  a  rapid  rate.  In  fact,  the  group  of  plants  growing  on 
the  soil  forms  a  "plant  society"  like  the  natural  plant  societies 
that  grow  on  any  piece  of  soil  left  to  nature.  On  a  heath  in 
Scotland,  for  instance,  there  may  be  a  very  large  amount  of 
heather,  a  small  amount  of  bell-heather,  and  smaller  amounts 
of  rockrose  and  many  other  plants,  and  on  any  two  similar 
pieces  of  ground  the  same  plants  will  always  be  found  in  about 
the  same  proportions.  Now  rough  observation  shows  that 
something  not  unlike  this  is  the  case  in  these  mixed  gardens  of 
the  villagers,  they  nearly  always  containing  the  same  plants, 
and  in  not  dissimilar  amounts.  It  must  not  for  a  moment  be 
supposed,  however,  that  the  villager  has  adopted  this  method  of 
"cultivation"  with  any  advantages  of  this  kind  in  view,  but 
rather  it  is  that  by  using  this  method,  the  troublesome  labour 
of  cultivation  is  practically  entirely  done  away  with,  for  he 
never  tills  the  soil  among  his  mixed  crops.  Though  his  return 
is  very  small  from  this  method  of  cultivation,  it  is  probable, 
therefore,  that  he  gets  one  of  the  two  great  advantages  of 
rotation,  though  of  course  he  loses  the  other,  of  the  proper 
tillage  of  the  ground  for  which  opportunity  is  given  by  the 
change  of  crop,  for  example  from  wheat  to  roots. 

Not  only  is  there  this  mixture  of  perennial  crops,  but 
mixture  of  annuals  is  very  common  in  the  East :  pulses  are 
sown  among  the  grain,  different  kinds  of  grain  with  one  another, 
and  so  on.  Here  again  the  gain  is  somewhat  like  that  obtained 
with  rotation,  or  the  season  may  suit  one  and  not  the  other,  so 
that  there  is  not  a  total  failure. 


30  [PT.  I 


CHAPTER   VII. 

PLANT  LIFE  IN  THE  TROPICS.     ACCLIMATISATION. 

THE  agriculturist  coming  from  Europe  to  the  tropics  must 
entirely  alter  his  point  of  view  in  regarding  the  vegetable  world. 
No  longer  is  there  any  interruption  of  the  growth  and  activity 
of  the  plants  by  a  winter.  On  the  other  hand,  such  interruption 
as  there  is  comes  rather  in  the  hottest  part  of  the  year,  the  dry 
season.  Near  to  the  equator  the  dry  seasons  are  so  short  that 
vegetation  goes  on  almost  uninterruptedly,  but  further  to  the 
north  or  the  south,  there  is  a  dry  season,  of  length  increasing  as 
we  get  further  from  the  equator,  and  in  this  season  the  growth 
of  the  plants  is  little  or  none.  Where  there  is  a  really  long  dry 
season,  as  in  northern  India,  irrigation,  as  already  explained,  is 
a  necessity  if  crops  are  to  be  grown  for  more  than  a  compara- 
tively small  portion  of  the  year. 

The  agriculturist  must  learn,  not  only  what  are  the  most 
suitable  times  of  the  year  for  sowing  and  for  planting  out — 
usually  the  wet  seasons — but  he  must  learn  to  perform  all  the 
other  operations  of  husbandry — pruning,  manuring,  cropping, 
etc. — with  reference  to  the  seasons.  In  most  of  Ceylon,  for 
instance,  the  great  planting  season  is  October-November,  and 
annual  crops  are  reaped  in  February-March. 

The  tropics  possess,  generally  speaking,  a  great  many 
species  of  plants.  Even  Ceylon,  only  five-sixths  the  size  of 
Ireland,  possesses  more  than  twice  as  many  as  the  whole  of 
Great  Britain  and  Ireland.  And  on  the  whole,  perhaps,  they 
similarly  outnumber  the  temperate  zones  in  the  number  of 
useful  cultivable  plants;  but  in  any  one  country  there  are 
usually  but  few,  and  there  are  many  others  which  may  be 


CH.  VII]      PLANT  LIFE  IN  THE  TROPICS.      ACCLIMATISATION        31 

brought  in  and  made  to  grow  satisfactorily  there,  or  "  acclima- 
tised," as  it  is  called. 

Acclimatisation  of  plants  in  the  tropics  is  very  old.  It 
has  been  very  vigorously  prosecuted,  and  with  great  success, 
from  the  first  settlements  there  of  Europeans,  the  Portuguese 
having  been  especially  active  in  this  respect.  Plants  were  very 
early  carried  from  the  New  World — especially  the  West  Indies 
— to  the  Old,  and  vice  versa.  Coffee  was  introduced  to  America, 
it  is  said,  by  Louis  XIV  of  France,  who  sent  a  ship  out  to  Hayti 
with  a  single  plant  on  board.  On  the  way  the  water  supply  ran 
short,  and  the  captain  heroically  shared  his  own  water  with  the 
plant,  and  brought  it  successfully  to  the  West  Indies.  It  is  said 
that  the  mangoes  in  some  of  the  West  Indian  islands  owe  their 
introduction  to  the  capture  of  a  French  warship,  which  was 
taking  them  to  one  of  the  French  islands.  A  vast  amount  of 
acclimatisation  has  gone  on,  and  in  many  cases  the  acclimatised 
plants  have  formed  the  basis  of  successful  industries  in  their 
adopted  homes,  e.g.  ginger  (East  Indian)  in  Jamaica,  tea 
(Chinese  and  N.  Indian),  cinchona  and  cacao  (South  American) 
in  Ceylon,  rubber  (South  American)  in  Ceylon  and  Malaya. 
Not  only  have  useful  plants  been  acclimatised,  but  also  innumer- 
able weeds,  usually  carried  unintentionally  in  packages  of  seeds, 
etc.  Ceylon  has  quite  a  large  flora  of  such  weeds,  which  are 
almost  all  Mexican  or  West  Indian,  the  reason  apparently  being 
that  Ceylon  being  a  forest-clad  country  had  no  weeds  of  its  own 
which  could  take  their  place  in  the  cleared  ground,  so  that  those 
introduced  from  open  countries  had  a  clear  field. 

With  the  advent  to  the  tropics  of  the  Dutch,  and  later  of 
the  English,  the  acclimatisation  of  plants  was  put  upon  a 
scientific  and  systematic  footing,  Botanic  Gardens  being  opened 
in  most  of  the  tropical  possessions  for  the  express  purpose, 
among  others,  of  introducing,  and  trying  experiments  with,  the 
plants  of  other  countries.  The  history  of  the  Ceylon  gardens, 
perhaps  the  most  successful  of  all  in  the  British  colonies,  will 
illustrate  the  general  history  of  all.  The  famous  gardens  of 
Peradeniya,  near  Kandy,  in  the  central  province  of  Ceylon,  were 
opened  in  their  present  site  in  1821.  Concerned  until  about 
1850  mainly  with  the  investigation  of  the  wild  flora  of  the 


32  AGRICULTURE  IN   THE   TROPICS  [PT.  I 

colony,  they  began  about  that  time  to  introduce  in  considerable 
number  the  useful  plants  of  other  countries.  Among  the  many 
valuable  things  introduced,  mention  need  only  be  made  of 
cinchona — introduced  in  1861,  and  forming  the  staple  industry 
of  Ceylon  for  many  years — of  cacao — also  an  important  industry 
in  the  island — of  tea,  now  the  staple  export  industry  of  the 
colony,  originally  introduced  by  the  gardens  in  1832  or  earlier, 
but  subsequently  mainly  brought  in  by  private  agency,  and  of 
rubber,  introduced  from  South  America  by  the  Indian  Govern- 
ment, aided  by  the  Botanic  Gardens  of  Kew,  and  now  rapidly 
becoming  the  third  or  fourth  most  important  industry  in  Ceylon. 
Without  the  aid  of  the  Botanic  Gardens,  Ceylon  would  have 
remained  a  small  and  unimportant  "  native "  possession.  In 
the  same  way  the  West  Indies  owe  many  of  their  most 
valuable  crops  to  the  Botanic  Gardens  there,  and  the  Malay 
Peninsula  is  becoming  a  rubber-country  as  the  result  of  the 
work  done  in  the  gardens  of  Singapore.  But,  for  the  future, 
this  acclimatisation  work  will  be  done  mainly  in  the  new 
countries,  e.g.  in  tropical  Africa,  where  cacao,  introduced  only 
a  few  years  ago,  is  already  a  very  important  industry. 

It  is  obvious  that  as  time  goes  on,  this  introduction  and 
acclimatisation  of  foreign  products  in  any  one  colony  or  posses- 
sion must  decrease  in  importance,  for  the  simple  reason  that 
most  of  the  new  products  that  can  possibly  be  brought  in  are 
now  introduced,  and  the  chance  of  finding  anything  of  great 
value  becomes  less  with  every  year.  Thus  during  the  last 
twenty  years  the  Ceylon  gardens  have  not  been  able  to  intro- 
duce anything  of  much  value,  though  they  have  been  able  to 
bring  in  a  few  minor  fruits,  shade  trees,  and  other  things,  and 
during  the  last  ten  years  a  great  change  has  come  over  the 
organisation  of  the  establishment,  which  has  expanded  into  a 
department  of  agriculture,  to  suit  the  changed  needs  of  the 
colony. 

The  work  of  the  colonial  botanic  gardens  has  of  course  been 
mainly  cooperative,  the  gardens  exchanging  plants  with  one 
another,  aided  in  the  exchange  by  the  central  garden  of  Kew. 
But,  just  as  the  acclimatisation  work  of  the  larger  colonies,  at 
any  rate,  has  sunk  into  comparative  unimportance,  and  as  the 


CH.  VII]      PLANT  LIFE  IN  THE  TROPICS.      ACCLIMATISATION         33 

facilities  for  direct  shipment  of  plants  from  one  part  of  the  globe 
to  another  have  increased,  so  the  exchange  work  of  Kew  has 
decreased  in  importance  to  the  larger  colonies. 

The  old  cry  for  new  products — that  is,  products  not  as  yet 
cultivated  in  the  country — must  now  be  modified.  Ceylon  is 
an  interesting  case  in  point.  At  one  time  coffee  formed  95°/0 
of  the  value  of  her  exports.  Tea,  which  has  taken  the  place  of 
coffee  in  the  mountains,  though  it  covers  a  larger  area  than 
coffee  ever  did,  now  only  forms  about  55%  of  the  value  of  the 
exports.  In  addition  to  this,  Ceylon  cultivates  on  a  commercial 
scale,  rice  (not  for  export),  coconut  palms,  palmyra  palms,  cacao, 
rubber,  citronella  oil,  cinnamon,  cardamoms,  coffee,  tobacco, 
besides  smaller  (but  usually  growing)  areas  of  camphor,  vanilla, 
coca,  lemongrass,  cotton,  nutmegs,  cinchona,  annatto,  cassava, 
fruits1  and  vegetables1,  a  very  varied  and  imposing  list  of  pro- 
ducts. There  are  now  practically  no  new  products  of  the  old 
kind  which  can  be  introduced  into  the  country,  and  in  which, 
as  was  the  case  in  tea,  the  competition  is  only  with  the  products 
of  the  tropical  or  sub-tropical  races  of  mankind,  or,  as  is  the  case 
in  rubber,  with  the  product  of  wild  jungle  trees,  collected  by 
very  rough  methods.  Almost  everything  of  value  in  tropical 
agriculture  is  now  in  the  hands,  somewhere  or  another,  of 
Europeans,  Americans,  Chinese  or  Japanese,  and  in  starting 
any  new  product  in  any  country  a  fierce  competition  will  have 
to  be  met  from  countries  already  growing  that  product. 

1  I.e.  for  export ;  there  are  large  areas  devoted  to  growing  these  products  for 
home  consumption. 


w. 


34  [PT.  i 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

AGRICULTURE   IN   THE   TROPICS   IN   PRIMITIVE 

TIMES,   AND   ITS   GRADUAL   CHANGE. 
j 

BEFORE  the  advent  of  the  European  races  to  the  tropics, 
agriculture  may  almost  fairly  be  called  non-existent  there, 
except  in  the  more  civilised  countries  such  as  India,  by  reason 
of  the  comparatively  savage  habits  of  most  of  their  inhabitants. 
It  is  not  intended  to  imply  that  nothing  was  cultivated,  for 
that  would  be  entirely  incorrect,  but  that  no  systematic  and 
regular  cultivations  were  engaged  in.  As  in  early  days  there 
was  practically  no  export  trade,  the  products  cultivated  were 
of  course  in  general  those  that  could  be  used  in  the  countries 
themselves,  such  as  rice,  yams,  fibres,  drugs,  oils,  etc.  It 
must  also  be  remembered,  that,  as  pointed  out  in  Chapter  VII. 
as  there  was  then  little  or  no  intercourse  between  the  different 
countries  in  the  tropics,  the  supply  of  useful  plants  was  far  less 
varied  than  it  now  is.  Rice,  for  instance,  was  probably  unknown 
outside  of  Indo-Malaya. 

In  general,  then,  the  principle  upon  which  early  agriculture 
was  conducted  was  of  the  simplest — grow  all  you  need,  and  con- 
sume all  you  grow.  And  in  very  many  countries  in  the  tropics 
agriculture  as  yet  has  practically  not  got  beyond  this  stage.  In 
the  older  and  more  civilised  countries  however,  such  as  India 
or  Ceylon,  matters  have  always  been  more  complex  than  this, 
owing  to  the  presence  of  land  owners  and  other  capitalists. 
Upon  the  land  belonging  to  such  people,  the  poorer  villager  has 
in  some  countries  had  to  work  as  a  slave,  in  others  has  had  to 
rent  the  land  for  his  own  use,  usually  on  a  system  of  shares,  the 
owner  taking  say  50%  of  the  crop  as  rent.  In  yet  other  cases, 


CH.  VIIl]   AGRICULTURE  IN  THE  TROPICS  IN  PRIMITIVE  TIMES     35 

the  villager  has  perhaps  owned  his  own  laud,  but  has  had  to  pay 
a  heavy  tax  to  the  chief  of  the  district.  A  relic  of  such  taxation 
was  kept  up  in  Ceylon  until  about  fifteen  years  ago,  the  villager 
having  to  pay  to  the  government  10%  of  the  rice  that  he  grew. 

Almost  the  only  countries  where  agriculture  was  carried  on 
in  any  systematic  way  in  early  times  were  those  inhabited  by 
the  Indian  races  (India,  Ceylon,  etc.),  where  agriculture  has 
always  been  counted  an  honourable  profession,  and  where  the 
cultivators  were  usually  among  the  highest  castes  of  all.  It 
appears  also  to  have  been  of  some  importance  in  tropical 
America  (Mexico,  Peru,  etc.)  prior  to  the  advent  of  the 
Spaniards. 

Partly  perhaps  in  consequence  of  the  unsettled  nature  of  the 
country,  and  the  risk  attaching  to  the  cultivator  who  should 
settle  down  in  one  place  to  cultivate  any  crops  for  a  long  period 
of  time,  the  system  of  chena  or  ladang  cultivation  briefly 
described  in  the  first  chapter  sprang  up  and  became  of  much 
importance,  though  of  course  it  is  obvious  that  the  first  clearings 
in  any  forest-covered  country  must  be  of  the  nature  of  chena. 
To  this  day,  it  is  one  of  the  standing  minor  grievances  of  the 
eastern  native  against  the  British  government  that  he  is  not 
allowed  free  and  unrestricted  chena  in  the  crown  lands.  The 
fact  that  such  practices  are  utterly  destructive  of  the  natural 
capital  of  the  country  does  not  in  any  way  appeal  to  him — so 
long  as  there  is  land  left  to  chena  he  considers  that  he  should 
be  allowed  to  chena  it.  In  the  more  densely  peopled  districts 
and  countries  the  practice  has  gone  out  perforce,  but  in  more 
thinly  peopled  places  it  is  extremely  popular. 

The  most  common  argument  in  favour  of  chena  used  by 
natives  of  countries  in  which  it  goes  on  is  that  the  land  is  so 
poor  that  it  will  not  allow  of  any  other  method  of  cultivation. 
This  is  disproved  by  the  fact  that  in  places  where  chena  used 
formerly  to  be  common,  as  for  instance  in  the  western  province 
of  Ceylon,  it  has  now  gone  out,  and  the  land  is  continuously 
cultivated,  by  the  success  of  European  planting  enterprises  in 
chena  countries,  and  by  actual  experiment,  as  at  Maha- 
iluppalama  in  Ceylon,  where  land  in  the  midst  of  a  chena 
district  has  proved  to  be  capable  of  continuous  cultivation. 

3—2 


36  AGRICULTURE    IN   THE   TROPICS  [PT.  I 

In  very  early  times  there  was  a  small  trade,  at  first  chiefly 
overland,  later  in  Moorish  or  Persian  ships  across  the  Indian 
ocean,  in  the  products  of  eastern  countries,  chiefly  spices,  for 
which  high  prices  used  to  be  given,  but  this  trade  was  extremely 
small,  and  most  of  the  spices  were  not  cultivated,  but  obtained 
from  wild  plants. 

Though  the  early  practices  of  agriculture  yet  survive  in 
many  eastern  and  other  countries,  the  whole  conditions  have 
been  altered  by  the  appearance  in  the  tropics  of  the  white  races 
of  the  north.  Apart  from  their  direct  influence  upon  agriculture, 
their  presence,  and  the  settled  government  which  they  have 
brought  with  them,  and  which  would  seem  to  be  a  thing  out- 
side the  capacity  of  the  tropical  races,  has  enabled  the  simple 
village  agriculture  of  former  times  to  extend  and  spread  in  all 
directions  with  the  growth  of  population,  until  now,  in  Java, 
India,  and  Ceylon,  for  instance,  there  is  far  more  of  it  than  there 
ever  was  in  primitive  times. 

From  very  early  times,  the  existence  of  the  nations  of 
Europe,  as  above  explained,  has  caused  a  slight  trade  mainly  in 
spices,  but  the  want  of  proper  transport  facilities,  among  other 
things,  checked  the  development  of  any  large  or  important 
trade.  Transport  by  water  was  of  course  the  first  to  become 
important,  and  hence  the  first  places  in  the  tropics  to  be  opened 
up  were  the  islands,  such  as  Ceylon  and  the  West  Indies,  coast 
places,  such  as  Madras,  and  the  valleys  of  the  great  rivers,  such 
as  the  Amazon. 

When  the  sailors  of  Portugal  and  other  European  nations 
had  found  the  way  to  India  and  the  East,  and  to  the  West 
Indies,  they  brought  the  markets  of  the  north  for  the  first  time 
really  within  the  reach  of  the  people  of  the  tropics.  Very 
much  the  same  process  went  on  in  all  places,  and  is  going  on 
to-day,  as  the  recent  history  of  the  West  African  coast  illus- 
trates. The  first  stage  is  the  establishment  of  factories  and 
trading  settlements  at  the  river  mouths,  which  buy  the  produce 
grown  in  the  interior  by  the  natives,  and  export  it.  The  general 
inefficiency  of  the  natives  and  their  methods,  and  the  insecurity 
and  dangers  to  which  the  traders  are  exposed  next  leads  to  the 
conquest  and  opening  up  of  the  country.  Nowadays  such  work 


CH.  VIIl]  IN    PRIMITIVE    TIMES  37 

is  generally  done  by  the  Government,  and  the  conquered  country 
is  treated  as  a  colony,  but  formerly,  as  in  the  case  of  the  East 
India  Company,  the  exploitation  or  development  of  the  country 
was  often  placed  in  the  hands  of  a  great  trading  company 
Such  in  general  have  been  the  methods  in  which  English  and 
Dutch  colonies  in  the  tropics  have  been  formed,  whereas  in  the 
case  of  the  Spanish  or  Portuguese  colonies  of  an  earlier  date, 
the  usual  method  was  simple  conquest  for  greed's  sake.  The 
trading  companies,  and  after  them  the  Governments,  of  the 
eastern  colonies,  for  a  long  time  worked  upon  very  crude  princi- 
ples, usually  endeavouring  to  establish  monopolies  and  keep  out 
competitors,  as  was  for  instance  the  case  for  many  years  with 
the  cinnamon  culture  in  Ceylon  (see  below). 

Once  Europeans  had  entered  the  countries  of  the  tropics  in 
the  capacity  of  masters,  the  breaking  up  of  the  old  primitive 
systems  of  agriculture  was  assured.  The  first  great  development 
in  agriculture  in  the  tropics  was  of  course  the  sugar  trade  of  the 
West  Indies,  which  was  worked  by  European  planters  with  the 
aid  of  slave  labour.  The  next  was  the  coffee  industry  of  Ceylon. 
In  general,  the  alteration  brought  about  by  Europeans  in  native 
agriculture  may  be  almost  said  to  be  due  to  their  development 
of  improved  methods  of  transport.  The  old  native  countries  had 
practically  no  methods  of  transport  but  by  coolie  or  bullock 
carriage  and  by  water.  The  Europeans  introduced  good  roads, 
then  railways,  and  often  canals,  which  have  opened  up  the 
countries,  and  made  agriculture  for  the  purposes  of  export  at 
last  reasonably  possible. 

The  invasion  of  the  European  races  also  altered  finance  in 
the  tropical  countries.  At  first  the  white  races  were  merely  in 
trading  settlements  at  the  mouths  of  the  rivers,  but  they  were 
not  long  content  simply  to  trade  with  the  natives.  Very  soon 
an  exploitation  of  the  countries  began,  with  the  aid  of  European 
capital.  Later  the  whites  conquered  the  countries,  arid  wanted 
to  settle  in  and  cultivate  them  themselves,  as  the  only  means  to 
ensure  large  and  regular  supplies  for  export.  The  first  example 
of  this  kind  of  thing,  as  already  indicated,  was  the  great  sugar 
industry  of  the  West  Indies,  where  the  white  planters  set  them- 
selves to  cultivate  sugar  with  the  aid  of  slave  labour  imported 


38  AGRICULTURE   IN  THE  TROPICS  [PT.  I 

from  Africa.  This  was  for  a  long  time  a  very  prosperous  under- 
taking, but  was  terribly  thrown  back  by  the  liberation  of  the 
slaves,  and  so  far  as  the  British  West  Indies  are  concerned,  has 
never  really  recovered  its  lost  ground. 

The  abolition  of  slavery  practically  threw  the  West  Indies 
out  of  the  competition,  which  was  now  beginning,  in  tropical 
agriculture  under  European  management,  and  the  countries  with 
cheap  labour  came  to  the  fore,  more  especially  Ceylon,  which 
now  began  to  develope  its  great  coffee  industry.  India  and  Java 
also  have  taken  a  great  part  in  this  development. 

The  history  of  agriculture  in  the  British  colonies  has  practi- 
cally been  the  history  of  the  planting  enterprises,  whereas  in 
Java  the  Dutch  put  into  operation  the  famous  "culture  system" 
of  van  den  Bosch,  compelling  the  natives  to  give  a  part  of  their 
land  and  a  part  of  their  labour  to  the  cultivation  of  "export" 
products,  such  as  indigo,  sugar,  and  coffee.  This  system1,  which 
is  now  all  but  extinct,  had  a  great  vogue  for  many  years,  and 
appears  to  have  had  no  small  share  in  making  Java  such  a  nation 
of  comparatively  energetic  and  skilful  cultivators  as  it  now  is. 

Ceylon,  generally  speaking,  has  led  the  way  in  the  various 
European  planting  enterprises — first  with  coffee,  then  with 
cinchona,  cacao,  tea,  cardamoms,  rubber,  and  other  things. 
The  West  Indies  have  cultivated  sugar,  fruits,  tobacco,  and  of 
late  cotton.  India  has  had  successful  planting  enterprises  in 
indigo,  tea  and  coffee,  Java  in  sugar,  cinchona,  spices,  tobacco, 
tea  and  coffee,  the  Sandwich  Islands  in  sugar,  West  Africa  in 
cacao,  South  America  in  coffee,  cacao,  etc.,  and  so  on. 

This  great  development  of  European  planting  enterprise  in 
the  more  civilised  and  opened  up  countries  has  of  course  quite 
revolutionised  the  primitive  agriculture  or  rather  has  built 
up  a  modern  agriculture  beside  it.  Though  there  is  still 
much  of  it,  probably  more  than  in  primitive  times,  it  is  now 
quite  overshadowed  in  importance  to  the  world  at  large  by  the 
European  enterprises,  which  provide  the  material  for  a  large 
export  trade.  Whether  planting  in  the  tropics  will  always 
continue  to  be  under  European  management  is  another  question, 
but  the  northern  powers  will  not  permit  that  the  rich  and  as 
1  For  details,  see  Part  III,  Chapter  n. 


CH.  VIII]  IN   PKIMITIVE   TIMES  39 

yet  comparatively  undeveloped  countries  of  the  tropics  should 
be  entirely  wasted  by  being  devoted  merely  to  the  supply  of  the 
food  and  clothing  wants  of  their  own  people,  when  they  can  also 
supply  the  wants  of  the  colder  zones  in  so  many  indispensable 
products. 

The  success  of  the  European  planters  has  had  the  effect  of 
stimulating  the  natives  in  many  places  to  imitation  or  rivalry, 
and  in  Ceylon,  for  instance,  there  are  now  a  large  number  of 
native  planters,  cultivating  mainly  coconuts,  but  also  engaging 
in  the  tea,  rubber,  and  other  industries.  And  the  number  of 
such  men  continues  to  increase. 


PART  II. 

THE  PRINCIPAL  CULTIVATIONS  OF  THE  TROPICS. 


CHAPTER   I. 

RICE   AND   OTHER   CEREALS   AND   FOOD   PLANTS. 

Rice.  This  is  one  of  the  oldest  and  most  important 
cultivations  in  the  world,  this  grain  forming  the  staple  of  the 
food  of  the  Chinese  and  Japanese,,  the  southern  races  of  India, 
the  Malay  and  Javanese,  and  other  races,  besides  being  very 
largely  consumed  in  temperate  climates.  In  recent  years  its 
cultivation  has  also  been  undertaken  by  white  men,  in  the 
southern  United  States,  with  very  good  results,  the  yield 
obtained  by  the  use  of  machinery  being  greater  in  proportion  to 
the  cost  of  the  labour  than  that  obtained  in  the  tropics. 

The  varieties  in  which  rice  (Oryza  sativa)  is  found  to  occur 
are  legion,  especially  in  India,  where  almost  every  district  has 
its  own.  This  is  probably  due  to  the  fact  that  there  has  been 
but  little  intercourse,  or  exchange  of  seed,  between  the  different 
districts.  The  two  main  kinds  of  rice  are  "  hill  "  and  "  swamp," 
the  former  growing  without  special  irrigation  and  up  to  a 
greater  height  in  the  mountains,  the  latter  more  a  lowland 
and  irrigated  form.  The  former  is  now  mostly  grown  by  the 
semi-wild  races,  such  as  the  Indian  hill-tribes,  the  Sakeis  of 
the  Malay  Peninsula,  and  others. 

Among  the  swamp  rices  one  of  the  most  important  varietal 
distinctions,  from  a  practical  point  of  view,  is  the  time  required 
from  sowing  to  reaping;  thus  there  are  "two-month,"  "three- 


Jt 

I 


OF     Tru 

UNIVERSITY 

OF 

UFORH 


CH.  l]        RICE   AND   OTHER   CEREALS    AND   FOOD    PLANTS  41 

month,"  etc.  rices,  up  to  six  and  nine  month.  It  is  almost 
needless  to  point  out  that  the  yield  is  in  general  greater  the 
longer  the  ripening  period,  but  of  course  the  kind  grown  in  any 
one  district  must  depend  on  the  length  of  time  during  which 
water  is  available.  Six-month  rice  will  be  useless  if  there  is 
only  water  for  four  months. 

Swamp  rice  requires  to  grow  in  a  few  inches  of  water 
until  its  seeds  are  all  but  ripe,  consequently  it  needs  to  be 
cultivated  in  fields  which  are  enclosed  in  little  banks  of  earth  to 
prevent  the  water  from  getting  away,  and  to  have  regular  irri- 
gation provided  for  it,  even  in  wet  countries.  The  most 
economical  districts  for  rice  cultivation,  therefore,  other  things 
being  equal,  are  the  great  flat  alluvial  lands  about  the  lower 
courses  of  the  large  rivers,  as  in  Bengal,  Madras,  and  Lower 
Burma,  but  rice  can  be  cultivated  anywhere  that  there  is  water 
available,  and  the  soil  suitable.  On  the  large  flats  the  fields 
can  be  correspondingly  large,  while  "as  we  get  into  more  rolling 
country  they  become  smaller,  and  require  more  terracing,  until 
at  last,  in  really  hilly  country,  the  fields  become  very  small, 
often  not  more  than  a  few  square  yards,  and  irregular  in  shape, 
and  exhibit  marvels  of  terracing,  as  may  be  seen  in  the  picture 
of  the  terracing  in  the  Kandyan  country  of  Ceylon  (Plate  I).  In 
these  terraced  fields,  of  course,  the  water  is  passed  down  from 
one  field  to  another,  but  to  bring  it  to  the  topmost  field  often 
requires  considerable  engineering  feats,  the  water  being  brought 
for  long  distances  in  channels  winding  round  the  faces  of  the 
hills.  These  channels  often  run  for  miles  over  very  difficult 
pieces  of  mountain  country. 

In  some  places  there  are  no  streams  that  can  be  impounded 
for  purposes  of  irrigation,  and  the  rice  has  to  be  grown  with  the 
ordinary  rainfall,  the  rain  being  simply  retained  in  the  fields  by 
the  banking  up  of  their  edges. 

Being  the  cultivation  of  the  national  food,  and  a  cultivation 
of  almost  immemorial  antiquity,  the  growth  of  rice  in  Indo- 
Malaya  is  hedged  round  with  many  superstitious  observances, 
which  differ  from  country  to  country.  A  brief  description  of 
some  of  the  ceremonies  observed  by  the  Kandyans  or  moun- 
taineers of  Ceylon  may  perhaps  suffice  as  an  indication  of 


42  AGRICULTURE  IN   THE   TROPICS  [PT.  II 

these.  "The  goiya  (cultivator)  presents  himself  before  the 
Neket-rala  (village  astrologer)  on  a  Monda}7  or  a  Wednesday 
with  the  customary  offering  of  forty  betel  'leaves  and  areca 
nuts,  and  expresses  his  wishes  in  a  humble  attitude.  The 
Neket-rala  then  informs  his  petitioner,  after  certain  astrological 
calculations,  of  the  circumstances  upon  which  the  success  or 
failure  of  his  undertaking  depends.  On  an  auspicious  day 
(according  to  the  Neket-rala)  the  goiya,  after  partaking  of  the 
morning  meal,  wends  his  way  to  his  land  with  a  mamoti  (see 
above,  a  kind  of  hoe),  his  face  turned  towards  the  favourable 
direction  of  the  horizon  as  indicated  by  the  astrologer.  Should 
the  goiya  on  this  journey  encounter  sights  or  sounds  which 
portend  failure,  e.g.  the  hooting  of  an  owl,  the  cry  of  a  house 
lizard,  the  growling  of  a  dog,  the  sight  of  persons  carrying 
weapons  capable  of  inflicting  injury,  etc.,  he  immediately  turns 
back  and  retraces  his  steps  homewards.  Again  the  Neket-rala 
has  to  be  approached  in  the  manner  before  described,  and 
consulted  as  to  a  lucky  hour.  Were  the  goiya  to  meet  with  a 
milk  cow,  vessels  filled  with  water,  men  dressed  in  white,  etc., 
when  he  sets  out  towards  his  land,  it  is  considered  very 

propitious On  the  following  day  the  goiya  entertains  such 

of  his  fellow-villagers  with  rice-cakes,  milk-rice,  etc.  as  are 
willing  to  cooperate  with  him  in  the  cultivation  of  his  field. 
At  the  lucky  hour,  these  villagers  armed  with  mamoties 
proceed  to  the  land,  headed  by  the  owner,  and  turning  their 
faces  in  the  .direction  of  Adam's  Peak  give  out  the  cry  of  Ha 

pura  hodai  (Ha,  a  good  beginning) 

"  When  the  field  is  ready  for  sowing, on  the  advent  of  a 

lucky  hour,  the  goiya  leaves  his  dwelling  after  having  recited  a 
number  of  religious  stanzas,  bearing  an  areca-nut  flower  and  a 
pata  (handful  with  the  fingers  stretched  out)  of  paddy  (rice  in 
the  husk).  Having  arrived  at  his  field,  with  his  eyes  turned 
towards  the  favourable  region  of  the  sky,  he  buries  the  paddy  in 
a  corner  of  a  ridge,  having  first  moulded  the  earth  at  the  spot 
so  as  to  resemble  a  peculiarly  shaped  symbolic  figure,  and  lays 

the  areca-nut  flower  on  the  top  of  the  mound The  High 

Priest  of  Kotmale  Pansala  informed  me  that  the  areca-nut 
flowers  were  intended  as  an  offering  to  the  gods,  who  are  held  to 


CH.  l]        RICE   AND   OTHER  CEREALS  AND   FOOD   PLANTS  43 

have  a  great  love  for  them,  while  the  paddy  is  believed  to  be 
taken  away  to  provide  for  a  meal. 

"  The  time  of  ploughing  is  one  of  great  solemnity  to  the 
Kandyan  paddy  cultivator.  The  Neket-rala  is  again  consulted 
for  the  purpose  of  finding  a  lucky  hour 

"  Thinning  is  done  by  the  women  when  the  paddy  is  about 

three  months  old No  one  dare  cross  the  ridges  with  an  open 

umbrella  while  the  women  are  at  work,  unless  there  be  urgent 
need  for  so  doing,  and  permission  be  first  obtained,  otherwise 
mud,  etc.  are  thrown  on  the  intruder,  whoever  he  be. 

"  Paddy  is  liable  to  be  attacked  by  a  grub... which  sucks  the 

juices  of  the  plant In  the  Anuradhapura  district,  sand,  after 

being  'charmed,'  is  scattered  over  the  field,  and  offerings  are 
made  to  Jyan  and  Abimana  Dewiyos  with  a  view  to  inducing 
their  intercession  to  stay  the  ravages  of  the  pest 

"  When  the  paddy  is  approaching  maturity,  other  cere- 
monies are  gone  through ;  the  goiya  after  purification  places 
three  ears  of  grain  on  a  leaf  of  the  Bo  tree,  which  is  held  in 
great  veneration  for  reasons  too  well  known  to  need  mention1, 
and  buries  them  in  the  kalavita  or  threshing  floor,  at  the  same 
time  chanting  some  mystic  words,  invoking  the  gods  to  protect 
the  crop  from  flood,  fire,  birds,  and  wild  beasts The  Neket- 
rala,  attired  in  fantastic  dress,  describes  a  peculiarly  shaped 
figure  with  ashes  on  the  kalavita  with  a  view  to  preventing 

sorcery  and  other  evil  influences Another  rite  of  a  peculiar 

nature  follows  this It  consists  of  digging  a  circular  hole  in 

the  field  and  placing  inside  a  model  of  the  sacred  footprint  of 
Buddha,  a  husked  coconut,  a  creeping  plant,  clusters  of  areca 
nuts,  leaves  from  the  hiraspalu  and  tolabo,  and  covering  these 
with  about  three  bundles  of  straw2." 

When  such  complicated  ceremonies  are  gone  through  for 
such  simple  operations  as  are  involved  in  the  cultivation  of  rice, 
it  is  not  surprising  to  find  that  the  methods  of  cultivation  are 

1  This  tree  (Ficus  religiosa)  was  that  under  whose  shade  Gautama  attained 
his  Buddhahood.     Almost  the  oldest  tree  in  the  world  of  which  there  is  any 
historical  record  is  the  sacred  Bo  at  Anuradhapura  in  Ceylon,  planted  there  in 
288  B.C. 

2  Ceremonies  observed  by  the  Kandyans  in  Paddy  Cultivation,  T.  B.  Pohath- 
Kehelpannala,  Journ.  Anthrop.  Inst.  November,  1895. 


44  AGRICULTURE   IN   THE  TROPICS  [PT.  II 

themselves  very  old  and  leave  much  to  be  desired  in  economy 
and  efficiency.  Not  only  so,  but  each  country  adheres  rigidly  to 
its  own  methods,  and  refuses  even  to  try  those  of  another 
country.  Ceylon  is  very  backward  in  that  the  method  of  sowing 
is  by  broadcasting,  while  Java,  which  is  very  advanced  in  the 
careful  transplanting  of  the  rice,  and  the  rotation  of  crops  upon 
the  rice  fields,  adheres  to  the  system  of  cutting  each  ear 
separately  with  a  penknife,  at  enormous  labour  cost.  A  brief 
description  of  some  of  the  methods  of  cultivation  may  be 
useful,  but  it  must  be  remembered  that  each  country  has  its 
own. 

Two  crops  of  rice  are  obtained  every  year  in  the  wet 
districts  of  Ceylon,  but  as  a  rule  only  one  from  any  one  field. 
The  fields  are  allowed  to  be  thoroughly  saturated  by  the 
heavy  rains  of  the  commencement  of  the  monsoon,  and  are 
then  turned  over  with  the  mamoti,  and  ploughed  with  a 
primitive  plough.  They  are  then  puddled,  usually  with  the  feet, 
or  with  a  mamoti,  and  levelled  over  into  a  thin  creamy  paste, 
on  which  the  seed  is  sown  by  broadcasting — a  most  wasteful 
method,  but  one,  which  being  the  "  custom,"  and  comparatively 
cheap  as  regards  labour,  is  rigidly  adhered  to.  When  the  seed 
has  germinated,  the  water  is  admitted  again,  and  the  rice  left  to 
grow,  with  perhaps  an  occasional  weeding,  until  harvest  time, 
when  as  the  grain  ripens,  the  water  is  once  more  turned  off,  so 
that  the  final  ripening  is  done  upon  dry  ground.  The  crops  are 
so  timed  that  this  ripening  shall  take  place  in  the  drier  weather 
of  the  monsoon,  i.e.  from  January  to  March,  or  from  July  to 
September. 

The  grain  is  harvested  with  sickles,  and  heaped  into  small 
stacks.  It  is  threshed  in  the  same  old  way  that  is  described 
for  corn  in  the  Bible,  by  being  laid  upon  the  ground,  and 
bullocks  driven  round  over  it.  It  is  then  winnowed  in  an 
equally  primitive  fashion,  by  being  thrown  up  into  the  air  from 
flat  basketwork  trays,  and  caught  again,  the  chaff  being  blown 
away  meanwhile. 

In  Madras  the  general  systems  of  cultivation  are  not  unlike 
those  in  Ceylon,  but  more  efficient,  and  the  yield  is  greater. 
About  7,000,000  acres  are  there  devoted  to  rice,  or  ten  times 


OF    THE 

UNIVERSITY 

OF 


CH.  I]        RICE  AND   OTHER   CEREALS  AND   FOOD   PLANTS  45 

as  much  as  in  Ceylon.  Manuring,  especially  in  the  form  of 
cattle-penning  on  the  land,  is  employed,  but  generally  only 
when  two  crops  are  to  be  taken  off  the  land  in  one  year.  In 
Burmah  there  is  a  very  large  area  given  to  rice,  the  yield  is 
good,  and  the  annual  production  is  perhaps  4,000,000  tons,  a 
large  quantity  being  exported. 

In  Bombay  the  yield  is  on  the  whole  larger  than  in  Madras, 
and  manuring,  both  heavy  and  rdb,  is  carefully  practised.  The 
latter  consists  in  growing  the  young  plants  upon  seed-beds  on 
which  a  mixture  of  dung,  leaves,  rubbish,  etc.,  has  been  slowly 
burnt. 

Bengal,  though  most  of  it  is  not,  strictly  speaking,  within 
the  tropics,  is  one  of  the  greatest  rice-growing  countries  of  the 
world,  and  as  the  bulk  of  the  rice  is  grown  in  the  summer,  we 
may  for  the  nonce  regard  it  as  tropical.  Three  main  varieties 
of  rice  are  grown,  aus,  the  early  crop,  sown  in  spring  and  reaped 
in  August  and  September,  aman,  the  main  crop,  sown  in  April- 
June,  and  reaped  November-January,  and  boro,  reaped  in 
the  spring.  Aman  is  by  far  the  most  important.  It  is  some- 
times sown  broadcast,  sometimes  transplanted,  and  is  not 
infrequently,  especially  in  jute  districts,  rotated  with  jute,  etc., 
the  order  often  being  rice,  pulse  or  oilseed,  jute,  pulse  or 
oilseed,  rice.  What  manure  is  available  is  carefully  applied. 
More  than  half  of  the  70  million  acres  of  rice  in  India  are  in 
Bengal,  which  exports  about  500,000  tons  to  other  countries. 

Java  is  also  a  great  rice-growing  country,  and  exports  about 
40,000  tons  of  rice  a  year.  Owing  to  the  hilly  configuration  of 
the  island,  the  rice  is  mainly  grown  on  small  terraced  fields,  as 
in  Ceylon.  As  soon  as  the  crop  has  been  gathered,  the  water 
is  allowed  into  the  fields  sufficiently  to  soften  them,  and  they 
are  then  cultivated  with  every  kind  of  vegetable,  prominent 
among  these  being  sweet  potatoes,  which  by  the  way  are  the 
only  rotation  crop  employed  in  Ceylon. 

Siam  and  French  Indo-China  are  also  great  rice-growing 
countries,  and  export  perhaps  even  more  rice  than  Bengal. 

In  recent  years,  with  the  influx  of  Indian  coolies,  and  their 
partial  settlement,  rice  has  become  an  important  article  of 
cultivation  in  Mauritius,  Guiana,  Trinidad,  and  elsewhere. 


46  AGRICULTURE   IN   THE   TROPICS  [PT.  II 

British  Guiana  is  already  exporting  this  grain  in  considerable 
quantity. 

The  yields  of  rice  obtained  differ  very  much  from  country  to 
country.  In  Ceylon  about  700  Ibs.  per  acre  is  probably  the 
average  in  the  more  thickly  populated  districts,  in  India 
probably  900  Ibs.,  while  in  the  Malay  Peninsula  about  2000  Ibs. 
is  often  obtained,  and  in  the  Tinnevelli  district  of  southern 
India  even  more,  so  that  in  1903  the  best  rice  land  there  was 
selling  for  Rs.  2000  per  acre  (£133).  The  natives  of  these 
countries,  however,  do  not  regard  rice  cultivation  from  a 
commercial  point  of  view,  and  there  is  not  the  least  likelihood 
of  their  giving  it  up  in  favour  of  anything  more  profitable. 

Rice  is  a  somewhat  difficult  grain  to  husk.  The  common 
method  in  Ceylon  and  elsewhere  is  by  means  of  a  heavy  pestle 
and  wooden  mortar,  while  in  much  of  India  it  is  first  parboiled 
and  dried,  and  then  husked  in  the  same  way. 

Nothing  is  more  striking  to  the  outside  observer  than  the 
obstinate  way  in  which  the  natives  of  each  country  cling  to  their 
own  particular  methods.  In  Ceylon  they  object  to  trans- 
planting on  the  ground  of  its  greater  expense,  the  fact  being 
that  though  it  uses  less  seed,  it  costs  more  in  labour.  In  Java, 
on  the  other  hand,  they  transplant  the  rice  most  carefully,  and 
treat  it  with  great  care  and  efficiency,  but  when  it  comes  to  the 
harvesting,  they  cut  each  ear  separately  with  what  is  practical  ty 
a  penknife.  Yet,  in  spite  of  all  effort,  this  custom  is  rigidly 
adhered  to,  as  the  harvest  time  is  the  great  festive  season,  when 
all  the  villagers  turn  out  into  each  field  in  turn,  well  dressed, 
and  engagements  are  then  mostly  contracted  between  the  young 
people. 

One  great  difficulty  in  the  way  of  any  improvement  being 
introduced  by  Europeans  into  this  cultivation  is  the  fact  that 
there  are  literally  thousands  of  varieties,  many  of  which  look  to 
the  botanist  exactly  the  same,  but  which  the  native  almost 
unerringly  distinguishes,  saying  that  the  one  will  suit  one  kind, 
the  other  another  kind,  of  soil,  or  that  he  can  eat  the  one,  but 
does  not  like  the  other.  The  native  understands  his  own 
varieties,  his  own  ways  of  cultivation,  his  own  taste,  to  a  nicety, 
and  resents  any  interference,  in  so  far  as  he  is  not  contemptuous 


Ill  (a).     High  Lands  and  Paddy  Fields 


III  (b).     Winnowing  Paddy 


CH.  I]        RICE  AND   OTHER   CEREALS   AND   FOOD   PLANTS  47 

about  it ;  while  one  not  knowing  the  niceties  of  flavour,  etc.,  is 
liable  to  great  mistakes.  The  Tamil  coolies  of  Ceylon,  who 
come  from  the  southern  parts  of  Madras,  live  on  the  imported 
parboiled  Indian  rice,  refusing  to  touch  the  Sinhalese  rice, 
which  they  say  gives  them  indigestion ;  while  the  Sinhalese  say 
that  there  is  no  nourishment  in  the  Indian  rice.  Analysis 
shows,  we  may  mention,  that  rice  contains  about  7 '3  °/0  of 
albumenoids  and  78'3  °/0  of  starch,  and  is  thus  hardly  so  good 
a  food  as  wheat. 

It  is  at  present  idle  to  imagine  the  natives  of  eastern 
countries  going  in  for  machinery  and  modern  methods,  such  as 
are  so  successful  in  the  United  States,  and  for  the  improvement 
of  rice  cultivation  we  must  look  to  other  and  minor  things. 
But,  as  has  been  elsewhere  indicated,  we  must  be  very  sure  of 
our  ground  before  we  recommend  any  measure  to  the  native  for 
adoption.  To  take  an  illustrative  case  from  Ceylon — a  planter 
living  near  Peradeniya  suggested  to  the  villagers  that  they 
should  manure  their  fields,  and  offered,  as  they  could  not  afford 
to  buy  the  manure,  to  give  it  to  them.  This  was  accepted,  the 
manure  was  applied,  the  plants  grew  splendidly,  about  half  as 
tall  again  as  usual,  the  planter  was  delighted.  But  when  harvest 
time  came,  the  village  headman  came  and  offered  to  give  him  all 
the  crop,  if  the  villagers  might  be  allowed  to  keep  the  straw. 
On  examination,  it  turned  out  that  the  "  paddy-fly  "  had  eaten 
out  the  contents  of  all  the  grains.  Whether  this  was  merely  a 
coincidence,  or  whether  it  was  that  the  extra  vigorous  growth 
of  the  shoots  had  made  the  grains  more  tender,  is  uncertain,  but 
the  result  of  the  experiment  was  a  disastrous  failure,  and  the 
villagers  there  have  acquired  a  prejudice  against  manuring 
which  may  last  a  century  or  more.  And  yet  there  is  no  doubt 
that  a  carefully  thought  out  scientific  system  of  manuring, 
combined  if  necessary  with  improved  precautions  against  the 
paddy-fly,  would  improve  the  crop.  But  the  important  point  is 
that  all  such  proposals  should  receive  the  most  careful  and 
exhaustive  trials  before  being  recommended  to  the  villagers. 

To  indicate  briefly  some  of  the  directions  in  which  it  would 
seem  possible  that  improvement  may  be  effected :  paddies  of 
different  durations  of  ripening  from  those  already  employed 


48  AGRICULTURE  IN   THE   TROPICS  [PT.  II 

might  be  tried  in  the  villages,  for  instance  "two-month" 
paddies  in  districts  at  present  only  using  "  four-month " : 
paddies  of  similar  duration,  but  of  better  quality,  should  be 
tried :  experiments  should  be  carefully  tried  with  improved 
tools,  especially  ploughs :  transplanting  should  be  introduced  in 
place  of  broadcasting,  in  districts  where  it  is  not  now  practised: 
harvesting  might  be  improved  by  the  use  of  the  scythe  in  place 
of  the  sickle :  threshing  by  the  use  of  the  flail :  the  use  of  water 
might  be  more  economical. 

Another  way,  again,  in  which  it  is  likely  that  great  im- 
provement might  be  introduced  in  most  countries,  is  in  the 
practice  of  rotation  of  crops.  During  the  period  in  which  the 
fields  lie  idle,  they  should  be  planted  with  other  crops.  This  is 
at  present  only  done  systematically  in  Java  and  India,  where 
the  fields  are  planted  with  sweet  potatoes,  jute,  pulses,  etc. 
It  would  seem  likely  that  if  the  same  crop  were  not  always 
used,  and  if  a  leguminous  crop  were  occasionally  introduced 
into  the  series,  a  better  effect  might  be  produced.  For 
example,  let  the  course  of  the  crops  be  rice,  sweet  potato,  rice, 
peas  or  beans  or  other  leguminous  crop. 

There  are  many  other  ways  in  which  small  improvements 
might  be  introduced  into  rice  growing,  without  giving  too  great 
a  shock  to  the  prejudices  of  the  villagers,  but  improvement 
must  be  very  gradual  and  cautious,  and  every  step  must  first 
be  carefully  tested. 

Dry  Grains.  This  term,  used  in  Ceylon  to  describe  those 
cereals  which  are  not  grown  with  the  aid  of  irrigation,  is  a 
convenient  generic  term  to  use  for  these  plants,  of  which  there 
are  many,  grown  over  very  large  areas  in  India  and  elsewhere. 
The  term  Millets  might  almost  as  well  be  used,  the  bulk  of 
these  grains  being  millets,  but  would  not  cover  quite  all  of 
them.  Next  only  to  wheat,  maize,  and  rice,  these  are  the 
most  important  food  grains,  and  it  is  probable  that  about  a 
quarter  of  the  population  of  the  world  lives  upon  them,  though 
they  are  more  unfamiliar  in  Europe  than  rice. 

India  is  more  especially  the  land  of  dry  grain  cultivation. 
In  the  drier  districts,  which  make  up  a  large  part  of  India,  it 


CH.  I]        RICE   AND   OTHER   CEREALS   AND   FOOD   PLANTS  4,9 

replaces  rice.  The  fields  are  usually  tilled  with  the  plough 
and  harrow,  the  latter  having  frequently  such  large  teeth  and 
being  so  heavily  loaded  that  it  is  practically  a  cultivator,  and 
the  seed  is  sown  with  a  drill,  or  broadcasted.  Most  of  these 
grains  ripen  in  a  few  months,  and  are  then  usually  harvested 
with  the  sickle,  and  threshed  with  bullocks,  as  described  under 
rice.  The  straw  is  often  valuable  as  fodder,  and  many  varieties 
are  grown  expressly  for  fodder  purposes. 

Among  the  more  important  of  these  grains  are  (1)  the 
Great  Millet  or  Guinea  Corn  (Sorghum  vulgare),  variously 
known  in  different  parts  of  India  as  juar,  jowar,  jowari,  cholam  : 
it  occurs  in  a  vast  number  of  varieties ;  (2)  the  Bulrush  Millet 
(Pennisetum  typhoideum),  or  bajri,  or  kumbu ;  (3)  the  Maize  or 
Indian  Corn  (Zea  Mays);  (4)  Eleusine  coracana,  the  ragi  or 
kurakkan;  (5)  the  Italian  Millet  (Setaria  italica)  or  Kangni; 
(6)  the  kodo  millet  (Paspalum  scrobiculatum)  whose  grain  is 
at  times  liable  to  be  poisonous  (it  is  supposed  from  the 
development  of  a  fungus  in  it) ;  (7)  the  other  millets  (Panicum 
species). 

Guinea  corn  is  grown  on  8,000,000  acres  in  Bombay,  and 
4,000,000  in  Madras,  as  well  as  elsewhere  in  India.  The  soil 
is  generally  manured  by  cattle-penning  and  in  other  ways,  and 
the  seed  most  commonly  broadcasted.  The  grain  contains 
more  albuminoids  and  less  starch  than  rice,  and  is  a  good 
food,  while  the  plant  makes  a  good  fodder  and  is  much  used 
for  this  purpose.  Guinea  corn  is  largely  exported,  especially 
from  Bombay  to  Aden,  Arabia,  Abyssinia,  etc. 

Bulrush  millet  is  especially  grown  in  Bombay,  and  covers 
8,000,000  acres  in  tropical  India.  It  is  a  summer  crop  and 
reaped  about  September.  The  analysis  is  like  that  of  Guinea 
corn. 

Maize,  or  Indian  corn,  a  native  of  America,  introduced  to 
the  east  by  the  Portuguese,  is  cultivated  all  over  India  and 
Ceylon,  but  only  on  the  large  scale  in  the  northern  non-tropical 
parts.  It  shows  a  great  range  of  varieties,  apparently  depend- 
ing to  a  large  extent  upon  climate.  New  varieties  introduced 
anywhere  tend  to  go  to  the  standard  local  form,  and  much 
disappointment  has  consequently  attended  efforts  to  improve 

w.  4 


50  AGRICULTURE   IN   THE   TROPICS  [PT.  II 

the  Indian  forms  by  acclimatisation  of  good  American  kinds. 
In  tropical  America  this  grain  is  very  largely  cultivated, 
especially  in  the  mountains  from  Mexico  to  Peru,  and  in 
various  forms  makes  up  one  of  the  great  staples  of  the  food  of 
the  population.  In  Venezuela  and  other  countries  of  tropical 
America  it  is  cultivated  in  different  varieties  from  sea-level  to 
7000  feet  and  even  higher,  yields  two  crops  a  year,  and  a  large 
return  per  acre.  Cakes  and  bread  are  made  of  the  bruised  or 
ground  corn,  the  green  cobs  are  eaten,  spirit  is  prepared  from 
the  corn,  the  young  plants  are  used  for  fodder,  etc. 

Ragi  is  grown  in  Madras  on  1,500,000  acres,  in  Bombay  on 
800,000.  It  yields  but  a  poor  food,  but  the  straw  is  good 
fodder. 

In  Ceylon  these  grains  are  very  popular  as  chena  crops,  and 
the  land  is  of  course  abandoned  between  crops,  and  rotation 
should  prove  of  much  benefit.  In  the  West  Indies  they  are 
grown  as  a  minor  food  crop,  but,  so  far  as  we  are  aware,  only 
rarely  in  large  areas.  In  Africa  they  are  also  very  common. 

The  dry  grains  being  so  important  a  part  of  the  food  supply 
of  the  world,  it  is  obvious  that  attention  should  be  especially 
devoted  to  them,  with  a  view  to  making  the  cultivation  more 
efficient  and  remunerative.  It  is,  however,  difficult  to  do  much 
in  this  way,  in  dealing  with  the  very  poor  people  who  mainly 
cultivate  these  grains. 

The  different  varieties  should  be  carefully  tested  against 
one  another  in  different  districts,  and  a  careful  study  should 
also  be  made  of  the  possible  rotations  or  mixtures  of  crops.  In 
most  of  India  these  grains  are  as  a  matter  of  fact  even  now 
sown  mixed  with  pulses,  etc. 

Other  Food  Crops.  There  are  many  other  plants  grown 
in  the  tropics  for  food,  and  it  would  lead  too  far  to  go  into 
details  with  regard  to  them,  but  a  brief  account  of  the  more 
important  of  them  will  be  given. 

Yams.  Strictly  speaking  the  name  applies  only  to  the 
tubers  of  species  of  Dioscorea,  but  it  is  often  applied  to  all 
tubers,  even  potatoes  being  known  as  yams  in  Ceylon.  The  four 
best  of  the  many  Dioscoreas  used  are  usually  supposed  to  be 


CH.  l]        RICE   AND   OTHER  CEREALS   AND   FOOD   PLANTS  51 

the  white  yam  (D.  alata),  the  negro  yam  (D.  sativa),  the  Guinea 
yam  (D.  aculeata),  and  the  cush-cush  yam  (D.  triphylla),  but 
there  are  very  many  others  eatable  out  of  the  150  species  of 
which  the  genus  is  composed.  Most  of  them,  and  all  the  best, 
have  underground  tubers  like  potatoes,  but  of  very  variable 
size,  from  a  few  ounces  in  some  kinds,  up  to  40  Ibs.  weight  in 
others. 

Yams  are  propagated  like  potatoes  from  pieces  of  the 
tubers,  and  are  planted  in  rows,  with  sticks  to  climb  upon. 
The  tubers  are  ripe  in  eight  to  twelve  months,  and  are  usually 
dug  up  and  put  by  to  keep.  The  yam  is  used  as  a  vegetable 
like  the  potato,  and  cooked  in  various  ways.  Properly  cooked, 
a  good  yam  is  an  excellent  vegetable,  though  English  people, 
with  their  ingrained  dislike  of  everything  that  is  not  "English," 
can  seldom  be  got  to  enjoy  it. 

Cassava,  Manioca,  or  Tapioca  (Manihot  utilissima)  is  one  of 
the  great  food  plants  of  the  tropics,  besides  being  consumed  in 
colder  climates.  It  is  a  native  of  South  America,  and  was  very 
early  introduced  into  Asia,  where  it  is  extensively  grown  in  the 
Malayan  countries,  Ceylon,  etc.  It  is  also  very  largely  cultivated 
in  the  West  Indies,  particularly  Dominica,  Martinique  and 
Guadeloupe.  It  is  a  shrubby  plant,  usually  about  eight  feet 
high,  and  produces  enormous  tubers  upon  the  roots.  These 
are  full  of  starch,  and  it  is  for  them  that  the  plant  is 
cultivated. 

There  are  two  varieties  in  cultivation,  the  sweet  and  the 
bitter.  The  latter  gives  the  best  return,  and  is  the  more 
popular,  but  its  tubers  contain  prussic  acid,  and  are  dangerously 
poisonous  until  the  acid  has  been  dissipated  by  boiling  or 
heating. 

The  plants  are  set  out  as  cuttings,  and  the  roots  may  be 
gathered  at  about  eight  to  twelve  months  old.  The  tubers  are 
carefully  dug  up,  and  are  usually  washed,  peeled,  and  grated 
small,  while  the  resulting  pulp  is  hung  in  a  compressible  bag, 
with  weights  upon  it,  so  as  to  squeeze  out  the  poisonous  juice. 
The  meal  is  then  baked  or  otherwise  cooked.  In  some  countries 
the  tubers  are  eaten  like  yams. 

The  poisonous  juice   is   often  boiled   down   in   the  West 

4—2 


52  AGRICULTURE   IN  THE  TROPICS  [PT.  II 

Indies,  until  it  forms  a  treacley  compound,  which  is  highly 
antiseptic  and  is  known  as  cassareep.  It  may  be  used  for 
preserving  meat,  and  is  an  ingredient  in  many  sauces. 

The  tapioca  of  commerce  (mostly  exported  from  Singapore) 
is  the  starch  of  the  tubers,  heated  so  as  to  burst  the  grains. 

Sweet  Potato  (Ipomoea  Batatas).  This  is  another  very 
common  vegetable  in  the  tropics,  as  in  the  United  States, 
though  English  people  deprive  themselves  of  one  of  the  best  of 
culinary  vegetables  by  refusing  to  eat  it  in  very  many  cases. 
It  occurs  in  very  numerous  varieties,  and  is  specially  popular  as 
a  rotation  crop  in  rice  fields.  It  is  a  small  climber,  not  unlike  a 
true  yam  in  habit,  and  is  cultivated  in  the  same  way,  and  the 
tuberous  roots  eaten. 

Arrowroot  (Maranta  arundinacea).  Though  the  best  arrow- 
root of  European  commerce  comes  from  Bermuda,  the  plant  is 
usually  a  tropical  cultivation.  The  tuberous  root-stocks  are 
full  of  starch,  and  the  plant  is  cultivated  like  Cassava. 

Sago.  The  sago  palm  (Metroxylon  Rumphii  and  other 
species)  is  an  important  cultivation  in  the  Malayan  region.  It  is 
a  short  palm,  which  only  flowers  once,  as  do  so  many  palms, 
after  a  long  period  during  which  it  is  saving  up  food  material 
with  which  to  do  so.  Just  before  the  flowering  stalk  arises, 
the  stems  are  cut,  and  their  pith,  which  is  very  rich  in  starch, 
scraped  out  and  washed. 

Aroids.  A  good  many  members  of  the  family  Araceae  or 
Aroideae  are  also  used  as  food,  especially  in  the  strictly  equa- 
torial regions.  Perhaps  the  most  important  are  the  taro 
(Colocasia  esculenta)  of  the  East  Indies,  and  the  tanier 
(Xanthosoma  spp.)  of  the  West  Indies. 

Food  for  Animals.  The  cultivation  of  fodder  plants  is 
hardly  yet  a  definite  industry  in  the  tropics  except  in  India, 
where  considerable  areas  are  cultivated  in  Guinea  corn,  millets, 
and  other  plants  for  fodders.  But  many  of  the  cereals  cul- 
tivated, and  especially  the  dry  grains,  furnish  good  fodder. 
Large  areas  of  Cuba  and  of  other  countries  are  now  under 
Guinea  grass  and  other  fodder  grasses.  An  important  minor 
industry  in  Ceylon  and  other  places  is  the  cultivation  of 


OF   THE 

UNIVERSITY 

Of 
CH.  l]        KICE  AND   OTHER   CEREALS   AND   FOOD   PLANTS  53 

Guinea  and  Mauritius  grasses  for  sale  to  the  proprietors  of 
horses  and  cattle  in  the  towns. 

In  the  more  equatorial  countries,  one  of  the  great  wants  is 
that  of  proper  grazing  land ;  the  cattle  get  a  little  grazing  on 
the  dry  paddy  fields  after  the  crop  is  cut,  and  are  usually  turned 
out  more  or  less  untended  to  graze  where  they  can,  but  real 
pasture  land  is  almost  unknown.  In  India  they  are  usually 
grazed  in  the  fields,  or  among  the  trees  upon  crown  forest  lands, 
under  charge  of  small  boys.  But  a  very  real  want  in  all  the 
more  equatorial  countries  is  pasture  land,  and  much  improve- 
ment of  cattle  cannot  be  taken  in  hand  unless  the  question  of 
proper  feeding  is  at  the  same  time  solved. 


54  [PT.  II 


CHAPTER  II. 

SUGAR. 

Cane  Sugar.  This  is  the  classic  tropical  cultivation,  so 
extensively  engaged  in  in  the  West  Indies  in  the  days  of 
slavery,  and  is  still  one  of  the  largest  industries  in  the  tropics, 
in  spite  of  the  competition  of  European  and  American  beet 
sugar.  It  is  most  extensively  pursued  in  Java,  the  Sandwich 
Islands,  British  Guiana,  the  Malay  Peninsula,  Cuba,  and  in  the 
British  West  Indies,  while  in  India  there  are  about  2,000,000 
acres  devoted  to  cane,  though  all  but  about  200,000  acres  are 
in  the  northern  non-tropical  parts. 

In  the  early  days  of  the  European  occupation  of  the  West 
Indies,  this  cultivation  was  practically  the  only  one  engaged 
in,  and  owing  to  the  great  profits  made  in  it,  thanks  to 
absence  of  competition,  slave  labour,  and  other  things,,  it 
gradually  took  up  a  great  part  of  the  country,  including  large 
afeas  of  soils  which  were  in  reality  unsuited  to  it.  The  first 
blow  to 'this  prosperity  was  of  course  the  abolition  of  slavery. 
The  second  was  the  competition  of  beet  sugar  grown  in  Europe, 
the  yield  of  sugar  from  the  beet  being  continually  improved  by 
scientific  selection.  The  third  was  the  continuance  of  the  West 
Indian  planters  in  the  old  ways,  suitable  enough  for  the  past 
generation,  but  out  of  keeping  with  modern  progress.  They 
continued  to  grow  sugar  in  small  areas  and  to  have  a  factory  for 
each  small  estate.  With  all  these  factors  against  it,  cane 
cultivation  in  the  British  West  Indies  has  in  recent  years  sunk 
to  a  very  low  level  of  prosperity.  From  a  modern  point  of 
view,  the  third  disadvantage  named  above  is  probably  the  most 
important.  In  Cuba,  Java,  Hawaii,  and  elsewhere,  sugar  is 
cultivated  on  a  very  large  scale,  and  enormous  factories  are 
erected,  which  of  course  can  contain  the  very  latest  and  best 


bfl 
3 
01 


CH.  Il]  SUGAR  55 

machinery.  Such  estates  continue  to  show  a  good  profit, 
though  the  small  West  Indian  concerns  do  not.  There  is  prob- 
ably no  industry  in  the  tropics  in  which  specialisation  has 
gone  so  far,  and  in  which  consequently  large  estates,  and  giant 
factories,  are  so  much  required.  The  small  maker  of  sugar  can 
only  survive  by  being  specially  bolstered  up,  but  the  small 
cultivator  is  of  course  all  right,  for  he  can  devote  his  attention 
to  growing  the  cane  in  the  best  way,  and  sell  it  to  the  large 
factory  near  by,  as  in  fact  is  done  on  a  fairly  large  scale  in  Java, 
the  Malay  Peninsula,  and  elsewhere. 

What  the  writer  saw  in  Cuba  may  very  well  illustrate  the 
general  tendency  in  sugar  cultivation.  An  American  merchant 
many  years  ago  had  a  small  sugar  estate  left  to  him  in  payment 
of  a  debt.  At  first  intending  to  sell  it  and  be  done  with  it,  he, 
on  second  thoughts,  went  down  to  look  at  it,  and  soon  decided 
that  the  expenditure  of  a  little  capital  would  perhaps  give  it 
a  chance.  This  was  done,  the  estate  paid  its  way ;  presently 
one  of  the  owner's  Cuban  neighbours  was  so  hardly  pinched  by 
bad  trade  that  he  sold  his  estate  to  the  American,  who  closed 
the  factory  upon  it,  dealt  with  the  cane  at  his  own  now  enlarged 
factory,  and  put  the  former  owner,  a  careful  man,  upon  the 
place  as  cane-growing  superintendent.  This  process  went  on, 
and  one  by  one  the  surrounding  estates  were  sold  to  the  grow- 
ing American  business,  till  now,  after  thirty  years,  its  rich 
proprietor  owns  about  15,000  acres  of  sugar-cane,  and  runs  a 
colossal  factory  dealing  with  the  whole  produce  of  this  area. 
I  was  informed  that  the  same  process  was  going  on  in  four  or 
five  districts  of  Cuba,  and  that  the  whole  sugar  industry  of  the 
island  was  falling  into  the  hands  of  a  few  wealthy  Americans  or 
American  companies.  Something  similar  will  probably  go  on  in 
time  in  the  larger  British  West  Indian  islands,  unless  their 
sugar  industry  largely  dies  out  in  favour  of  cotton  or  other 
products,  or  it  may  be  that,  as  in  Montserrat,  their  sugar 
industry  will  sink  to  a  peasant  cultivation,  the  landowner  pro- 
viding the  land  and  the  sugar  works,  the  peasant  cultivating 
and  manufacturing  the  sugar,  each  party  then  taking  one  half  of 
the  net  proceeds.  Sugar  is  thus  very  cheaply  produced,  for  the 
peasant  does  not  set  much  value  on  his  time,  and  the  land- 


56  AGRICULTURE   IN   THE  TROPICS  [PT.  II 

owner  spends  little,  but  the  land  tends  to  become  steadily  im- 
poverished. 

In  India,  on  the  other  hand,  the  problem  is  quite  different. 
The  cheapening  of  sugar  by  the  competition  of  beet-sugar,  and 
other  causes,  have  enormously  increased  the  local  consumption, 
though  they  have  thrown  India  out  of  the  export  trade.  The 
local  demand  is  mainly  for  the  coarse  unrefined  gur  or  jaggery, 
which  can  be  produced  more  cheaply  than  any  imported  sugar. 
The  cane,  which  is  grown  in  small  areas,  and  often  in  rotation 
with  wheat,  rice>  pulses,  and  other  crops,  is  crushed  between 
wooden  rollers  and  the  juice  boiled  down  till  it  will  condense 
on  standing. 

Sugar  (Saccharum  officinarum)  grows  best  on  rich  porous 
clays  and  on  alluvial  soils  at  sea  level,  and  does  not  mind  the 
near  neighbourhood  of  the  sea.  It  will  not  succeed  in  the  hills. 
It  sets  no  seeds  as  a  rule,  and  is  propagated  by  cuttings,  which 
are  nowadays  usually  planted  about  five  or  six  feet  apart.  In 
from  12  to  14  months  (in  the  West  Indies)  the  shoots  from 
these  cuttings  are  ripe  for  harvesting,  when  they  form  bunches 
of  waving  stems,  about  6 — 12  feet  in  height,  and  looking  not 
unlike  gigantic  grasses,  as  indeed  they  are. 

They  are  cut  close  to  the  ground  with  cutlasses,  and  brought 
into  the  factory.  Owing  to  their  enormous  weight  the  problem 
of  carriage  assumes  great  importance  in  sugar  cultivation.  On 
large  estates  in  the  West  Indies  and  elsewhere,  they  are  gener- 
ally brought  in  by  light  railroads  or  tramways  laid  down  in  the 
fields,  sometimes  worked  by  horses,  sometimes  by  locomotives. 
In  the  Malay  Peninsula,  on  the  other  hand,  the  laud  lies  very 
low,  and  small  canals  have  been  made  throughout  it,  upon 
which  the  cane  can  be  hauled  in  barges,  at  a  great  saving  in 
cost.  This,  I  was  informed  by  the  manager  of  the  largest  com- 
pany engaged  in  sugar  cultivation  there,  gives  the  estates 
a  very  measurable  advantage  over  those  of  the  West  Indies, 
in  which  he  was  for  several  years  engaged  in  the  cultivation  of 
sugar. 

In  British  Guiana,  it  is  stated  that  30  tons  of  cane  per  acre 
are  regarded  as  a  good  crop,  and  yield  25  tons  of  juice,  but  this 
evaporates  to  about  36  cwt.  of  sugar.  Even  so,  it  is  evident 


CH.  II]  SUGAR  57 

that  the  crop  must  be  a  very  exhausting  one,  and  indeed  rota- 
tion of  crops  is  commonly  practised  with  sugar. 

In  many  countries  the  canes  are  not  replanted  after  every 
crop,  but  the  stumps,  or  rattoons,  as  they  are  called,  are  allowed 
to  grow  up  again  for  two  or  more  years. 

Once  in  the  factory  the  sugar  cane  goes  through  a  variety 
of  processes.  It  is  first  passed  through  large  and  heavy  rollers, 
which  crush  out  the  juice.  As  a  rule  it  goes  successively 
through  two  or  three  sets  of  such  rollers.  The  refuse  cane, 
known  as  megass,  is  commonly  used  as  fuel  for  the  engines  in 
the  factory,  and  is  carried  to  them  by  elevators.  The  juice  is 
next  clarified  by  being  mixed  with  unslaked  lime,  and  heating, 
when  the  acids  are  neutralised,  and  the  twigs  and  other  debris 
contained  in  the  juice  rise  to  the  top  and  are  skimmed  off. 
It  is  then  concentrated  by  heating  in  several  successive  boilers, 
usually  under  lower  and  lower  pressure,  and  finally  the  thick 
pasty  mass  is  poured  out  to  stiffen  into  sugar  and  then 
arranged  in  such  a  way  as  to  allow  the  uncrystallisable 
"  molasses  "  to  drain  off.  It  would  lead  beyond  the  scope  of  this 
work  to  describe  the  processes  in  detail.  The  work  requires, 
and  in  every  modern  factory  receives,  the  attention  of  a  skilled 
chemist — one  reason  among  many  why  the  small  factory  cannot 
hope  to  succeed  against  the  big  one. 

Some  of  the  sugar  factories  in  Cuba,  Hawaii,  and  the 
Malayan  region  are  upon  a  colossal  scale,  the  machinery  in  them 
representing  large  capital  expenditure.  Big  machinery  crushes, 
boils,  crystallises,  and  does  the  other  work  of  the  factory  much 
more  economically  than  small,  and  obtains  a  greater  percentage 
of  sugar  from  a  given  kind  of  cane. 

Until  comparatively  recently,  even  in  the  most  advanced 
countries,  the  cultivation  of  the  cane  was  more  or  less  casual, 
attention  being  rather  devoted  to  the  improvement  of  the 
machinery  to  deal  with  it ;  and  it  remains  in  this  condition  in 
India  and  elsewhere.  Now,  however,  stimulated  by  the 
example  of  beet  sugar,  in  which  wonderful  improvements  have 
been  introduced  by  careful  selection  of  the  tubers,  and  in  other 
ways,  careful  and  well-organised  attempts  are  being  made  in 
Java,  the  West  Indies,  and  elsewhere,  to  improve  the  yield  of 


58  AGRICULTURE   IN   THE   TROPICS  [PT.  II 

the  cane.  Already  several  new  varieties  have  been  created, 
which  bid  fair  to  give  much  better  returns.  It  has  also  been 
found  that  the  cane  occasionally  bears  fertile  flowers,  and 
attempts  have  been  made  to  gain  the  benefits  due  to  cross- 
fertilisation.  Some  of  these  crosses  also  promise  well. 

The  general  indications  point  to  sugar  remaining  a  very 
important  industry  in  Java,  Cuba,  and  other  of  the  more 
advanced  countries,  but  to  its  more  or  less  dying  out,  or  becom- 
ing a  peasant  cultivation,  in  the  smaller  West  Indian  Islands. 
Improvement  in  this  cultivation  is  a  slow  matter;  one  of  the 
most  obvious,  in  such  countries  as  India  or  many  of  the  West 
Indies,  is  separation  of  the  manufacture  from  the  growth,  and 
specialisation  of  the  former  into  very  large  factories,  with 
trained  chemical  assistance.  Trial  of  new  and  improved  canes 
may  be  recommended,  and  the  production  of  improved  forms. 
Careful  study  of  rotation  of  crops  upon  sugar  land  is  also 
required,  for  sugar  is  a  very  exhausting  crop,  and  requires  to  be 
alternated  with  other  things.  Green  manuring  between  the 
rows  of  sugar  might  also  be  of  advantage.  In  India  a  special 
problem  is  presented,  to  grow  sugar  adapted  to  local  needs,  and 
this  the  more  as  foreign  and  cleaner  sugar  seems  to  be  becoming 
annually  more  popular  there. 

Other  Sources  of  Sugar.  Many  of  the  palms  have  the 
habit  of  flowering  only  at  the  end  of  their  life,  either  in  one 
large  mass  of  flowers,  or  in  several  consecutive  ones.  From  such 
palms,  and  from  the  Coconut  and  Palmyra  and  other  palms 
which  do  not  do  this,  sugar  is  obtained  in  many  tropical  coun- 
tries, by  tapping  the  flower  stalk,  collecting,  and  evaporating, 
the  juice.  A  coarse  brown  sugar  named  jaggery  is  thus 
obtained,  and  it  is  in  general  a  sweet  and  good  sugar,  exten- 
sively used  in  tropical  lands.  Careful  comparative  investigations, 
and  perhaps  selection  of  seed,  are  badly  wanted  in  reference  to 
this  industry,  which  is  very  important  locally  in  the  tropics. 


59 


CHAPTER   III. 

TEAS. 

Tea.  The  tea  plant  (Thea  sinensis)  is  originally  a  native 
of  south-west  China,  Assam,  and  Manipur,  occurring  in  several 
varieties,  of  which  the  true  "  China  "  with  rather  small,  and  the 
"  Assam "  with  rather  large,  leaves  are  the  best  marked.  It 
has  been  largely  cultivated  in  China  and  Japan  for  a  very  long 
time,  and  has  always  formed  a  staple  of  the  consumption  of 
those  countries.  From  about  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth 
century  it  came  largely  into  use  in  Europe,  but  the  supply  was 
for  a  very  long  period  entirely  or  almost  entirely  from  China, 
and  the  great  tea  merchants  were  mostly  in  Foochow  and 
Canton.  About  1835  through  the  efforts  of  the  Botanic 
Gardens  in  Calcutta,  the  cultivation  was  introduced  into  Assam, 
and  from  almost  the  very  start  it  has  proved  successful  there, 
until  now  Assam  is  a  very  large  producing  country.  It  was 
not  tried  commercially  in  Ceylon  until  considerably  later,  when 
the  collapse  of  coffee  rendered  it  obligatory  to  find  something 
else  to  grow  instead  of  it,  but  about  1875  the  first  tea  was 
exported  from  Ceylon,  and  proved  to  be  profitable.  During  the 
early  eighties  there  was  a  tremendous  rush  into  tea  in  the 
island,  and  by  1896,  when  the  rush  began  to  fall  off  rapidly, 
the  area  planted  in  tea  was  no  less  than  380,000  acres,  and  it 
has  remained  at  that  figure  since,  with  trifling  change.  At  a 
later  period  it  was  introduced  into  Java,  and  that  country 
now  has  about  50,000  acres  in  tea  cultivation.  It  has  also 
been  introduced  into  the  West  Indian  islands,  and  into  other 
countries,  but  in  none  of  them  is  labour  sufficiently  cheap  to 
render  the  cultivation  profitable  against  the  competition  of 
India  and  Ceylon. 


60  AGRICULTURE   IN   THE  TROPICS  [PT.  II 

With  the  enormous  growth  of  the  industry  in  India  and 
Ceylon,  which  now  have  between  them  about  1,000,000  acres 
in  tea,  the  export  of  tea  from  China  has  gradually  fallen  off, 
and  the  merchants  have  left  Foochow  for  Calcutta  and  Colombo. 
Thus,  the  figures  of  consumption  in  England  for  a  few  different 
years  may  be  quoted,  as  clearly  illustrating  this  statement : 


1849 
1859 
1869 
1879 
1889 
1899 

China 
50,021,576  Ibs. 
76,303,661 
101,080,491 
126,340,000 
61,100,000 
24,000,000 

India 

10,716,000  Ibs. 
34,092,000 
96,028,491 
134,000,000 

Ceylon 

28,500,000  Ibs. 
85,137,945 

In  1905,  Ceylon  exported  165,101,442  Ibs.  of  tea,  of  which 
107,183,999  went  to  the  United  Kingdom. 

The  rise  of  the  tea  industry  of  Ceylon  affords  one  of  the 
most  remarkable  instances  of  rapid  development  of  an  agri- 
cultural pursuit,  especially  when  the  previous  history  of  the 
planting  industry  in  the  island  is  remembered.  In  1875  there 
were  barely  1000  acres  planted  with  tea.  During  the  next  ten 
years  of  depression,  due  to  the  failure  of  coffee,  this  acreage 
increased  to  102,000,  by  1889  it  attained  205,000,  by  1893, 
305,000,  and  it  is  now  about  385,000,  though  with  the  inter- 
planting  of  rubber  in  the  tea  that  has  gone  on  in  the  lower 
districts,  this  will  likely  be  reduced  in  about  six  years  to 
330,000.  The  island  imported  its  tea  in  the  early  days  of  tea 
planting,  but  in  1883  the  export  exceeded  1,600,000  Ibs.,  in 
1887  it  was  13,813,872  Ibs.,  in  1896  108,141,412  Ibs.,  and  in 
1905  no  less  (including  green  tea)  than  165,101,442  Ibs.  For 
the  present,  at  any  rate,  the  growth  of  the  industry  seems  to 
have  practically  reached  its  upper  limit. 

Tea  is  now  the  chief  industry  in  the  mountain  districts  of 
Ceylon,  the  Nilgiri  Mountains  of  South  India,  the  great  valleys 
of  Assam,  the  hills  at  Darjiling,  and  elsewhere  in  India,  to  say 
nothing  of  the  rapidly  increasing  industry  in  Java.  In  Ceylon, 
above  the  elevation  of  2500  feet,  it  forms  almost  the  only  culti- 
vation, and  a  journey  on  the  rail  from  Kandy  to  Nuwara  Eliya 
affords  perhaps  one  of  the  most  striking  instances  in  the  world 


CH.  Ill]  TEAS  61 

of  a  large  stretch  of  country  covered  with  one  crop.  Excepting 
only  the  summits  of  the  mountain  ridges,  the  grass  lands,  and 
the  actual  precipices,  a  vast  sheet  of  tea  covers  hill  and  dale, 
broken  chiefly  by  the  straight  lines  of  the  "  wind-belts,"  narrow 
belts  of  Australian  trees  planted  through  the  tea  fields  across 
the  direction  of  the  prevailing  winds. 

By  far  the  largest  proportion  of  the  tea  cultivation  is  in 
the  hands  of  European  planters  resident  on  the  estates.  The 
average  size  of  an  estate  is  between  250  and  300  acres,  but 
there  is  a  tendency  of  late  for  estates  to  be  united  in  groups  for 
economy  of  working  and  management,  and  to  enable  larger  and 
more  economical  factories  to  be  used.  Whereas  formerly  a 
large  proportion  of  the  planters  were  owners  of  their  estates, 
they  are  now  more  often  salaried  employes  of  large  or  small 
companies,  some  managed  locally,  some  directed  from  London. 
The  export  and  general  business  of  the  estate  or  company  is 
worked  through  a  Colombo  agency,  which  also  superintends  the 
general  conduct  of  the  estate  by  means  of  its  "  visiting  agent," 
a  planter  of  long  experience,  who  goes  over  the  estates  at 
intervals,  inspecting  their  working,  estimates,  accounts,  etc. 

The  labouring  force  of  a  tea  estate  consists  generally  of 
Tamil  coolies  from  South  India,  working  in  gangs  under  over- 
seers locally  termed  kanganies1,  by  whom  they  are  recruited 
from  their  villages.  As  a  rule  they  return  after  a  time  with 
their  savings,  but  some  few  settle  in  Ceylon.  The  rate  of  wages 
on  a  tea  estate  seems  small,  being  only  from  25  to  50  rupee- 
cents  (i.e.  from  4d.  to  8cL)  a  day,  but  is  high  enough  to  make 
Ceylon  seem  a  kind  of  Eldorado  to  the  coolies.  They  are 
housed  and  medically  attended  at  the  cost  of  the  estate,  and 
their  welfare  is  carefully  attended  to.  The  heavier  labour  is 
done  by  the  men,  the  lighter,  such  as  tea  plucking,  by  the 
women  and  children. 

Similar  remarks  apply  almost  equally  well  to  any  of  the 
other  tea-growing  countries  of  the  tropics.  South  India  works 
almost  exactly  like  Ceylon,  Java  with  its  own  labour.  Assam 
is  hardly  within  the  tropics  and  need  only  be  mentioned. 

1  Pronounced  cahn-gahnies. 


62  AGRICULTURE   IN  THE  TROPICS  [PT.  II 

Several  varieties  of  the  tea  plant  are  known  ;  the  China 
variety  is  but  little  cultivated  except  in  China,  and  the  usual 
ones  cultivated  on  estates  are  the  "  Assam  Indigenous,"  and  the 
"  Hybrid,"  a  cross  between  this  and  the  China.  Both  of  these 
have  larger  leaves  than  the  China  variety,  and  yield  more  crop. 
The  tea  plant,  a  small  tree  when  left  to  itself,  is  cultivated  on 
estates  in  large  fields,  in  which  the  plants  are  placed  about  four 
feet  apart,  and  severely  pruned  at  intervals  of  eighteen  months 
to  four  years  according  to  the  elevation  (low  or  high)  of  the 
estate  above  the  sea,  down  to  a  height  of  1J  feet.  They  thus 
form  squat  bushes  about  three  feet  high,  and  with  flat  spreading 
tops,  so  that  it  is  easy  for  the  coolies  to  get  at  the  young  shoots 
that  are  constantly  appearing  on  the  tops  of  the  bushes.  These 
shoots,  taken  together,  are  termed  the  "flush,"  and  the  object 
of  cultivation  and  pruning  is  to  ensure  large,  frequent  and 
regular  flushing.  In  the  colder  climates  of  China  and  Assam 
flushing  ceases  in  winter,  but  in  Ceylon  or  Java  it  goes  on  all 
the  year  round. 

Tea  manufacture  consists  essentially  in  the  plucking  of  the 
young  shoots  of  the  flush  and  their  subsequent  treatment  by 
"withering,"  "rolling,"  "fermenting,"  and  "drying"  or  "firing," 
to  form  tea.  In  Ceylon  the  flush  is  plucked  every  eight  to 
twelve  days  by  women  and  children  working  in  gangs  under 
kanganies.  They  soon  become  remarkably  quick  and  expert  at 
the  work.  Plucking  is  designated  as  "  fine  "  when  the  bud  at 
the  tip  of  the  young  shoot  and  the  two  young  leaves  just  below 
it  are  taken,  "medium"  when  the  bud  and  three,  "coarse" 
when  the  bud  and  four  leaves  are  taken.  The  coarser  the 
plucking  the  poorer  the  average  quality  of  the  tea  produced, 
though  the  greater  the  quantity.  Fine  plucking  produces  the 
various  teas  known  as  pekoes,  while  the  older  leaves  give 
souchongs  and  congous.  Pekoes  consisting  only  of  the  buds  or 
tips  are  known  as  "  flowery,"  those  containing  also  the  first 
young  leaf  as  "  orange  "  pekoes. 

The  coolies  bring  in  their  day's  plucking  to  the  factory, 
usually  a  large  well-equipped  building,  containing  the  most 
modern  machinery,  and  worked  by  water  or  steam  power.  The 
"leaf"  is  examined  and  weighed,  and  the  amount  plucked  by 


CH.  Ill]  TEAS  63 

each  coolie  recorded,  the  wages  depending  partly  on  the  amount 
plucked. 

After  the  leaf  has  been  weighed  it  is  taken  to  the  upper 
floor  of  the  factory  and  thinly  spread  out  on  light  openwork 
shelves  of  canvas  known  as  tats,  to  wither.     In  good  weather 
it  becomes  limp  and  flaccid  in  about    18  hours,  but  in  wet 
weather  artificial  heat  is  employed  and  a  current  of  warm  dry 
air  drawn  through  the  withering  loft.     The  properly  withered 
leaf  is  next  thrown  down  through  shoots  into  the  rollers  or 
rolling  machines  on  the  ground  floor.     A  roller  consists  essen- 
tially of  a  table  with  a  central  depression  to  hold  the  leaf,  and 
a  hopper  above  it,  the  two  moving  over  one  another  with  an 
eccentric  motion.     Pressure  to  any  required  extent  can  be  put 
upon  the  mass  of  leaf  that  is  being  rolled,  and  at  the  end  of  an 
hour  or  so  the  door  in  the  bottom  of  the  table  is  opened,  and 
the  "  roll "  falls  out,  the  leaves  all  twisted  and  clinging  together 
in  masses,  which  are  then  broken  up  in  a  machine  called  a  roll- 
breaker,  to  which  is  usually  attached  a  sifter  that  separates  the 
coarser  leaf  from   the  finer.      After  this  the  leaf  is  piled  in 
drawers  or  on  mats  to  ferment  or  oxidise,  with  free  access  of  air. 
This  process  is  omitted  in  the  manufacture  of  green  tea.     In 
a  couple  of  hours  or  so,  depending  upon  the  weather,  the  leaf 
assumes  a  coppery  colour,  and  gives  out  a  peculiar  smell.     Ex- 
perience is  required  to  determine  the  exact  point  at  which  to 
stop   the   fermentation   and   place  it   in  the  firing  or  drying 
machines.     There  are  many  types  of  these  machines,  but  all 
act  by  passing  a  current  of  hot  dry  air  through  the  damp 
fermented  leaf  till  it  is  dry  and  brittle,  when  it  is  removed  and 
sorted  into  grades  by  a  machine  composed  of  a  series  of  moving 
sieves  of  different  sizes  of  mesh.     Finally  it  is  bulked  (i.e.  the 
whole   mass   of  each   grade    made   on   one   or   more   days   is 
thoroughly  mixed  together,  so  as  to  secure  as  great  uniformity 
of  quality  as  is  possible),  packed  in  lead-lined  boxes  of  about 
100  Ibs.,  soldered  up,  labelled  with  the  name  of  the  estate,  and 
despatched  to  the  port  for  shipment. 

The  grades  of  tea  usually  prepared  in  Ceylon  and  India  are 
known  (in  order  of  quality  and  value)  as  orange  pekoe,  pekoe, 
pekoe-souchong,  souchong,  congou,  and  dust. 


64  AGRICULTURE   IN   THE   TROPICS  [PT.  II 

Green  tea,  made  in  the  same  general  way  as  black,  but 
withered  by  means  of  steaming,  and  prepared  without  ferment- 
ation, is  graded  as  young  hyson,  hyson  No.  1,  hyson  No.  2, 
gunpowder,  and  dust.  Green  teas  are  mainly  made  for  the 
American  market,  where  the  common  black  teas  made  for  the 
English  and  Australian  markets  are  not  popular.  At  the  time 
of  writing,  indications  are  not  wanting  that  Ceylon,  at  any  rate, 
will  soon  be  able  to  cater  for  the  American  taste  in  black  teas, 
which  at  present  demands  teas  with  an  "oolong"  flavour. 
Hitherto  oolongs  have  been  made  mainly  in  Formosa  and  in 
parts  of  China,  but  in  1904  the  Planters'  Association  of  Ceylon 
sent  Messrs  M.  Kelway  Bamber  and  A.  C.  Kingsford  to  Formosa 
to  investigate  their  methods  of  making  teas,  and  since  their 
return  to  Ceylon  Mr  Bamber  has  been  able  to  produce  there 
teas  with  the  oolong  flavour. 

Until  about  1900  the  price  of  tea  fell  fairly  steadily,  and 
cheapening  of  production  did  not  keep  pace  with  it,  so  that  the 
profit  also  fell  off.  That  it  has  not  continued  to  fall  must  be 
attributed  to  two  causes,  the  cessation  of  extension  of  the  culti- 
vation, and  the  increased  consumption  in  markets  outside  of  the 
United  Kingdom,  such  as  Australia,  Russia,  America.  This  has 
largely  been  the  work  of  the  export  cess  levied  by  the  Ceylon 
Government  at  the  request  of  the  planters,  and  applied  to 
advertising  Ceylon  tea  in  new  markets.  This  cess  has  been  30 
cents  of  a  rupee  (or  5d.)  per  cwt.  of  tea  exported,  too  small  an 
amount  to  be  noticeable,  but  making  a  very  handsome  total 
upon  the  whole  export.  It  is  now  to  be  done  away  with,  which 
seems  a  retrograde  step,  though  the  extension  of  rubber  culti- 
vation will  of  itself  reduce  the  area  in  tea.  The  prices  of  tea 
have  of  late  risen  somewhat,  and  the  worst  period  of  depression 
of  the  industry  would  seem  to  be  over  for  the  present. 

The  whole  history  of  the  tea  industry  is  thus  a  con- 
spicuous instance  of  the  success  of  good  methods  and  modern 
machinery  against  primitive  hand  methods,  such  as  are  still 
employed  in  China,  a  country  which,  though  possessing  the 
cheapest  labour  in  the  world,  has  been  quite  unable  to  hold  its 
own  against  the  competition  of  India  and  Ceylon.  Somewhat 
the  same  story  has  been  enacted  in  the  cases  of  cinchona, 


VII  (a).     Withering  Tea 


VII  (b).     Rolling  Tea 


OF    THE 

UNIVERSITY 

OF 


CH.  Ill]  TEAS  65 

coffee,  and  cardamoms,  and  is  now  about  to  be  enacted  in  the 
case  of  rubber. 

The  general  tendency  in  the  case  of  tea  would  seem  to  be 
towards  the  further  cheapening  of  production  by  grouping 
together  of  estates  and  opening  of  very  large  factories,  towards 
the  further  opening  up  of  important  foreign  markets,  such  as 
America  and  Russia,  perhaps  by  the  manufacture  of  oolongs  and 
other  special  kinds  of  teas  to  suit  their  tastes,  and  towards  the 
abandonment  of  areas  which  have  proved,  now  that  the  great 
rush  is  over,  quite  unsuitable  for  the  cultivation  of  tea.  Agri- 
culture in  the  tropics  has  in  the  past  been  conducted  too  much 
at  hazard,  and  the  suitability  of  the  soils  and  climates  to  the 
production  of  particular  crops  has  been  too  much  neglected,  but 
in  the  future  this  will  have  to  be  more  carefully  regarded. 

Other  directions  in  which  improvement  is  to  be  looked  for 
are  in  the  general  application  of  green  manuring,  in  the  more 
scientific  use  of  bulk  manures  for  flavour,  in  the  selection  of  the 
best  seeds  for  propagation,  and  in  the  manufacture. 

Mate  or  Paraguay  Tea.  This  plan \4Ilex paraguayensis) 
requires  a  brief  mention  here,  as  it  grows  within  the  tropics 
in  South  America,  though  mainly  cultivated  in  Paraguay.  The 
trees  are  about  as  large  as  orange  trees  if  left  to  themselves. 
Their  leaves  contain  theine,  like  those  of  tea,  and  from  them  an 
infusion  is  made  which  is  very  popular  in  South  America.  The 
Argentine  Republic,  some  years  ago,  consumed  this  drink  at 
the  rate  of  13  Ibs.  a  head  a  year,  and  the  total  consumption  is 
said  to  be  135  million  Ibs.  The  drink  has  never  become 
popular  in  Europe,  though  every  now  and  then  introduced 
there. 


w. 


66  [PT.  ii 


CHAPTER  IV. 

COFFEE,   CACAO   OR   CHOCOLATE,   KOLA,   ETC. 

Coffee.  This  plant  is  now  mainly  cultivated  in  Brazil  and 
the  rest  of  tropical  America,  which  give  more  than  half  the 
supply,  Java,  and  South  India,  but  thirty  or  forty  years  ago  was 
the  mainstay  of  export  agriculture  in  Ceylon,  in  which  island 
there  were  about  300,000  acres  devoted  to  it.  Its  history  in 
Ceylon  is  of  some  interest.  Next  to  the  old  sugar  cultivation 
of  the  West  Indies,  coffee  cultivation  was  the  first  industry  in 
the  tropics  that  was  found  worth  attention  by  Europeans  (other 
than  Governments) — the  first,  if  slave  labour  be  left  out  of 
account.  It  was  first  taken  up  in  Ceylon  in  the  early  thirties. 
From  then  till  about  1845  there  was  a  tremendous  "boom"  in 
it,  and  it  was  engaged  in  by  numerous  persons  who  had  no 
knowledge  whatever  of  tropical  cultivation,  with  the  inevitable 
collapse,  as  described  in  more  detail  in  another  place.  Then 
came  a  period  of  resuscitation  and  renewed  prosperity  under 
more  skilled  superintendence,  lasting  till  about  1870,  when  the 
first  signs  of  the  insidious  leaf-disease,  Hemileia  vastatrix, 
a  parasitic  fungus  feeding  upon  the  leaves  of  the  coffee  bush, 
began  to  appear.  Numerous  remedies  were  suggested  and 
tried,  but  all  without  avail,  and  the  disease  spread  and  spread 
over  the  great  sheet  of  coffee  cultivation  in  the  mountains,  and 
was  closely  followed  by  a  bad  attack  of  "green  bug,"  until  in 
the  eighties  the  cultivation  was  practically  entirely  ruined,  and 
the  numerous  European  planters  reduced  almost  to  beggary. 
It  is  doubtful  if  the  world  can  produce  a  more  striking  instance 
of  the  complete  destruction  of  an  industry  by  the  attacks  of 
disease,  though  it  is  certain  that  if  tea  had  not  then  come  in, 


CH.  IV]         COFFEE,   CACAO   OR   CHOCOLATE,   KOLA,   ETC.  67 

and  proved  very  profitable,  coffee  would  not  have  died  out  so 
completely  as  has  been  the  case. 

At  the  present  time  there  are  over  5,000,000  acres  culti- 
vated with  coffee  in  the  tropics,  half  of  this  in  Brazil,  and 
another  fifth  or  fourth  in  the  other  countries  of  tropical 
America,  where  coffee  is  often  the  mainstay  of  export  agricul- 
ture. The  finest  qualities  of  coffee  come  from  the  mountain 
districts  of  Java,  Jamaica,  Mexico,  Arabia,  etc. 

There  are  two  chief  kinds  of  coffee  cultivated,  Arabian 
(Goffea  arabica)  and  Liberian  (C.  liberica),  the  former  growing 
best  in  the  mountains  from  1000  to  5000  feet  above  the  sea,  the 
latter  doing  best  in  the  "low"  country.  The  former  obtains 
a  much  better  price  for  its  product,  and  is  the  only  one  culti- 
vated wherever  feasible,  but  in  such  countries  as  the  Federated 
Malay  States,  its  cultivation  is  at  present  at  any  rate  impossible, 
and  Liberian  coffee  is  attended  to.  A  good  many  other  species 
have  been  found  in  W.  Africa,  etc.,  and  though  none  seem 
specially  worth  cultivating  alone,  some  are  proving  useful  in 
hybridisation. 

Of  late  years  a  good  deal  of  preliminary  work  has  been  done 
in  hybridising  the  coffees,  and  some  of  the  Arabian-Liberian 
hybrids  show  promise  of  being  of  considerable  value.  In  Java, 
also,  a  regular  system  of  grafting  Arabian  upon  stocks  of 
Liberian  is  in  common  use,  and  in  this  way  the  former  can  be 
got  to  grow  at  a  profit  in  districts  to  which  it  is  somewhat 
unsuitable  when  grown  upon  its  own  roots. 

Coffee  is  cultivated  upon  ordinary  good  soils,  and  planted 
about  six  to  eight  feet  apart  in  the  case  of  Arabian,  twelve  in 
that  of  Liberian.  In  Ceylon,  in  former  years,  and  in  parts  of 
the  West  Indies  at  the  present  day,  it  was  cultivated  without 
any  shade,  but  in  Java  the  custom  now  is  to  shade  it  to  some 
extent,  and  it  is  found  that  this  renders  it  less  liable  to  the  leaf 
disease,  so  that  though  the  disease  is  very  common  in  Java, 
coffee  can  still  be  grown  there  at  a  profit.  In  most  of  tropical 
America,  too,  it  is  generally  shaded,  the  commonest  trees  used 
being  species  of  Erythrina.  The  tops  of  Arabian  bushes  are 
often  pruned  off,  to  give  them  a  spreading  habit  at  about  three 
to  five  feet  high,  while  Liberian  are  left  alone.  The  plant  will 

5—2 


68  AGRICULTURE    IN   THE  TROPICS  [PT.  II 

not  succeed  in  strong  winds,  and  if  the  shade  trees  do  not 
supply  sufficient  protection,  or  if  they  are  not  used,  wind-breaks, 
or  belts  of  trees  across  the  direction  of  the  prevailing  winds, 
are  employed. 

As  soon  as  the  plants  grow  up,  they  are  very  carefully 
pruned.  The  primary  branches  are  left,  but  all  the  secondaries 
are  removed  to  a  distance  of  six  or  more  inches  from  the  stem, 
and  beyond  that  one  secondary  branch  is  taken  off  at  each 
node,  and  that  upon  alternate  sides,  so  that  if  at  one  node  a 
branch  is  left  projecting  to  the  left,  at  the  next  one  will  be  left 
to  the  right,  and  so  on. 

Coffee  comes  into  bearing  at  3 — 5  years  old,  and  bursts 
into  blossom  simultaneously,  so  that  a  field  in  full  bloom,  with 
the  large  snowy  flowers,  is  a  very  beautiful  sight.  The  fruits 
are  red  berries,  ripening  some  time  afterwards,  and  in  the  case 
of  Arabian  coffee  must  be  picked  as  soon  as  ripe,  as  otherwise 
they  fall  off.  A  good  yield  is  at  the  rate  of  4 — 12  cwts.  of 
dried  seeds  per  acre. 

The  ripe  fruits  are  first  washed  through  a  "  pulper,"  a 
machine  with  a  barrel,  covered  with  teeth  like  that  of  a 
musical  box,  or  with  semi-circular  projections,  revolving  against 
a  fixed  beam.  This  crushes  the  pulp  on  the  fruits,  and  they 
pass  through  into  a  stream  of  water,  where  it  is  washed  away. 
The  pairs  of  seeds  are  then  placed  in  a  vessel  to  ferment  for  a 
couple  of  days,  the  remains  of  the  pulp  are  easily  washed  off, 
and  they  are  dried.  The  dried  fruits  then  form  what  is  termed 
"parchment,"  the  two  seeds  being  enclosed  face  to  face  in  a 
parchment-like  covering.  In  this  condition  they  may  be  kept 
a  long  time,  but  they  are  generally  put  through  what  is  called 
a  "  huller,"  in  which  a  revolving  heavy  wheel  breaks  up  the 
parchment  layer,  and  sets  free  the  seeds,  which  are  freed  from 
the  broken  parchment  by  winnowing.  They  are  then  bagged 
and  sent  to  Europe.  Five  pounds  of  the  fresh  fruit  finally  give 
about  one  of  dry  coffee. 

At  present,  Brazil,  in  which  the  leaf-disease  is  unknown, 
holds  a  very  large  share  in  the  world's  markets,  at  least  as 
regards  quantity  of  coffee,  though  it  does  not  perhaps  produce 
the  very  highest  qualities.  With  the  rise  in  exchange,  the 


CH.  IV]         COFFEE,   CACAO   OR   CHOCOLATE,   KOLA,   ETC.  69 

Brazilian  producers,  who  sell  for  gold,  and  pay  in  silver,  will  of 
course  be  somewhat  hardly  hit,  and  other  countries  may  again 
have  a  chance  to  produce  coffee  to  good  profit. 

The  chances  of  improvement  in  coffee  cultivation  seem  to ' 
lie  to  a  large  extent  in  scientific  treatment.  Careful  study  of 
the  different  hybrids  is  required,  and  also  of  the  methods  of 
grafting  one  kind  of  coffee  on  another,  or  possibly  even  on  other 
members  of  the  same  natural  family.  The  successful  acclima- 
tisation of  Liberian  coffee  in  Java  at  high  levels,  even  to 
3000  feet,  by  taking  the  seed  up  a  few  hundred  feet  at  each 
generation,  also  indicates  a  line  which  may  be  useful  in 
hybridisation.  Careful  selection  of  seed  of  the  best  bearers 
both  as  to  quality  and  as  to  quantity  is  also  urgently  needed, 
and  it  is  possible  that  even  selection  of  the  quickest  bearers 
might  prove  of  advantage,  by  producing  a  breed  that  would 
yield  a  crop  earlier  than  those  at  present  cultivated.  Green 
manuring,  again,  would  probably  prove  of  use. 

Cacao,  Cocoa,  or  Chocolate.  The  cacao  tree,  Theobroma 
Cacao,  is  probably  a  native  of  Venezuela  and  northern  South 
America,  and  is  still  largely  in  cultivation  there,  but  is  now 
probably  almost  the  most  widely  cultivated  of  those  tropical 
products  in  which  there  is  an  export  trade.  The  following 
figures1  give  the  export  from  different  countries  for  the  year 
1904: 

Ecuador  28,433  tons  Gold  Coast  5,687  tons 

Brazil  23,160  Cuba  &  Porto  Rico  3,266 

St  Thomas  20,526  Ceylon  3,254 

Trinidad  18,574  Haiti  2,531 

San  Domingo  13,557  Jamaica  1,650 

Venezuela  13,048  Martinique,  etc.  1,215 

Grenada  6,226  Dutch  East  Indies  1,140 

Kamerun,  Samoa,  Togo  1,109  tons,  and  other  countries  below  1000  tons. 

These  are  large  figures,  but,  allowing  7  or  8  acres  to  produce 
a  ton,  it  will  be  seen  that  they  do  not  represent  very  large 
areas. 

1  From  "Gordian." 


70  AGRICULTURE   IN   THE   TROPICS  [PT.  II 

The  general  principles  of  the  cultivation  of  cacao  are  much 
the  same  in  all  countries,  and  therefore  the  methods  followed  in 
Ceylon,  whose  cacao  in  general  obtains  the  highest  prices,  may 
be  described  here,  with  notes  on  the  important  points  of  differ- 
ence in  other  countries. 

Cacao  is  a  small  tree  or  large  shrub,  from  12  to  25  feet  in 
height,  and  much  branched.  It  has  large  leaves,  which  when 
young  are  reddish  in  colour,  and  hang  downwards.  It  flowers 
in  vast  profusion,  not  on  the  twigs,  as  one  would  expect,  but 
upon  very  short  branches  produced  on  the  old  and  stout  stems. 
The  flowers  are  succeeded  by  a  considerable  number  of  oval 
reddish,  greenish,  or  yellowish  fruits,  about  6  to  11  inches  long, 
with  rather  fleshy  outer  walls,  and  containing  about  30  bean- 
like  seeds,  each  enclosed  in  a  mucilaginous  outer  coat. 

There  are  numerous  varieties  of  cacao  in  existence,  but  these 
may  in  general  be  classed  under  two  main  types,  conveniently 
known  by  their  Spanish  names  of  Criollo  and  Forastero1.  The 
former  are  characterised  by  plump  pale-coloured  seeds  of  fine 
quality,  making  up  a  large  bulk  in  comparison  with  the  external 
size  of  the  pod,  the  shell  being  relatively  thin.  The  tree  itself 
is  usually  small  and  somewhat  delicate.  On  account  of  the 
pale  colour,  these  seeds  are  specially  valued  in  Europe  and 
America  for  the  manufacture  of  eating  chocolate,  and  consider- 
ably higher  prices  are  paid  for  them  than  for  the  Forastero. 
The  very  high  prices  obtained  for  many  years  by  the  Ceylon 
cacao  were  due  mainly  to  its  being  the  seed  of  this  variety,  and 
now  that  it  has  been  very  largely  replaced  by  Forastero,  the 
average  prices  of  Ceylon  cacao  have  gone  down. 

The  term  Forastero  includes  all  the  varieties  other  than  the 
Criollos.  The  chief  ones,  in  descending  order  of  merit,  are 
Cundeamor,  Liso  or  Trinitario,  Amelonado,  and  Calabacillo. 
The  seeds  of  these  varieties  are  more  or  less  purple  in  colour, 
and  the  shell  of  the  fruit  is  thicker  and  harder.  In  consequence 
of  the  purple  colour,  the  seeds  sell  for  lower  prices,  but  this  is 
to  some  extent  made  up  by  the  better  and  hardier  growth. 

1  Lock,  R.  H.,  On  the  varieties  of  Cacao  existing  in  the  Royal  Botanic 
Gardens  and  Experiment  Station  at  Peradeniya,  Circ.  &  A.  J.,  R.  B.  G., 
Peradeniya,  n,  24  Oct.  1904,  p.  385. 


IX.     Criollo  Cacao,   in  fruit 
(Original  in  possession  of  the  Kolonial  Wirthschaftliche  Komitee,  Berlin) 


Of    THE 

UNIVERSITY 

OF 

I  LI  FOB! 


CH.  IV]         COFFEE,   CACAO   OR   CHOCOLATE,   KOLA,   ETC.  71 

Other  species  of  cacao,  e.g.  Theobroma  pentagona,  are  also 
occasionally  used  as  cacao  producers. 

The  cacao  plant  must  be  cultivated,  generally  speaking, 
under  a  certain  amount  of  shade,  more  especially  to  protect  it 
against  the  wind,  which  produces  disastrous  results.  The 
favourite  shade  trees,  both  in  the  West  Indies  and  the  East, 
have  hitherto  been  species  of  Erythrina,  known  in  the  West 
Indies  as  Madre  del  Cacao,  or  Bois  Immortelle,  in  the  East  as 
dadap,  but  in  recent  years  some  variety  is  coming  in,  the  various 
species  of  rubber  especially,  and  more  particularly  the  Castilloa, 
being  employed  as  shade  trees,  and  themselves  yielding  direct 
financial  returns.  The  shade  trees  are  usually  planted  at  about 
50  feet  apart,  and  the  cacao  under  them  at  12  or  15  feet  apart. 
The  latter  begins  to  bear  fruit  in  about  its  sixth  year,  and  the 
yield  increases  for  some  years.  A  good  average  yield  of  dried 
cacao  "  beans  "  is  about  3  cwt.  per  acre  per  annum. 

The  amount  of  shade  necessary  varies  with  the  climate. 
Some  of  the  West  Indian  Islands,  with  very  damp  air,  and 
apparently  with  hilly  ground  and  very  little  wind  (mostly  on 
the  leeward  side  of  the  islands)  are  able  to  dispense  with  shade 
altogether. 

The  tree  is  apparently  somewhat  narrowly  limited  in  range 
of  temperature  that  will  suit  its  growth,  for  it  only  succeeds  in 
Ceylon  at  elevations  from  200  to  2500  feet,  and  not  very  well  at 
either  of  these  extremes.  In  more  continental  climates  it  is 
grown  at  higher  elevations,  e.g.  3500  feet  in  Uganda,  and  it  is 
said  even  to  5000  or  over  in  Ecuador. 

The  ripe  fruits  are  picked  by  means  of  a  tool  not  unlike 
a  reaping  hook,  it  being  important  that  they  should  be  cleanly 
severed  from  the  stem,  and  they  are  then  opened  by  means  of 
knives  or  otherwise  and  the  mucilaginous  seeds  shaken  out. 
The  treatment  of  these  seeds  differs  slightly  in  different  coun- 
tries. In  Ceylon  they  are  piled  in  heaps  and  covered  with  sand 
and  plantain  leaves,  or  placed  in  tubs  or  vats  and  similarly 
covered,  in  order  to  ferment.  The  heaps  are  turned  over  at 
intervals,  and  at  the  end  of  from  2  to  4  or  even  10  days  the 
fermentation  is  complete1,  when  the  seeds  are  taken  out,  and 
1  It  takes  least  time  with  the  best  varieties. 


Y2  AGRICULTURE   IN   THE   TROPICS  [PT.  II 

the  thin  watery  fermented  mass  of  outer  pulp  is  washed  off  by 
rinsing  in  water.  Fermentation  also  ensures  the  penetration  of 
water  into  the  interior  of  the  seeds,  causing  them  to  swell  out 
and  giving  them  a  plump  and  "  bold  "  appearance. 

The  fermented  and  washed  beans  have  next  to  be  dried, 
which  is  done  by  spreading  them  out  on  mats  in  the  sun  for 
a  few  hours  daily,  and  keeping  them  heaped  up  for  the  rest  of 
the  time.  A  few  days  of  this  treatment  causes  them  to  dry  in 
the  same  plump  and  bold  outline  which  they  had  while  still 
wet.  In  very  wet  or  sunless  weather  the  beans  are  dried  by 
artificial  heat  in  closed  chambers,  hot  air  being  drawn  over  them 
in  various  ways,  but  the  results  are  not  in  general  so  good  as 
those  obtained  by  drying  in  the  sun. 

In  some  places  the  beans  are  simply  dried  without  any 
fermentation,  but  this  gives  a  poor  product.  In  the  West 
Indies  the  washing  is  often  dispensed  with.  In  Venezuela  the 
cacao  is  "  clayed,"  the  wet  beans  from  the  fermentation  being 
sprinkled  with  dried  and  powdered  red  clay,  and  afterwards 
rubbed  between  the  hands  to  remove  the  mucilage. 

Once  dry,  the  beans  are  simply  bagged  and  exported  to 
Europe.  Lately,  however,  a  manufactory  of  prepared  cacao  and 
chocolate  has  been  opened  in  Ceylon. 

The  cultivation  of  cacao  is  thus  a  fairly  simple  one,  and  as 
no  manufacture  is  required  upon  the  spot,  it  commends  itself  to 
"  native  "  proprietors,  and  also  to  planters  in  countries  where 
labour  is  not  very  plentiful.  This  is  perhaps  or  probably  the 
reason  why  its  cultivation  has  grown  so  enormously  in  West 
Africa  during  the  last  ten  years. 

In  recent  years  the  cultivation  of  cacao  has  shown  signs  of 
becoming  more  scientific.  In  1897  and  later  there  was  a  con- 
siderable outbreak  in  Ceylon  of  a  canker  attacking  the  stems. 
Warned  by  the  fate  of  coffee  in  the  island,  the  planters  of  cacao 
were  alarmed,  and  early  measures  for  the  eradication  of  the 
canker  were  taken,  under  the  advice  of  the  Botanical  depart- 
ment. These  have  been  almost  entirely  successful,  except  in  so 
far  as  the  cultivation  of  the  old  Criollo  cacao,  which  gave  to  the 
Ceylon  product  its  very  good  name  and  high  prices,  has  been 
largely  replaced  by  that  of  the  Forastero  varieties,  whose  purple 


X  (a).     Drying  Cacao  in  the  Sun   (Ceylon) 


X  (b).     Cacao  drying  house  in  Surinam  with  moveable  platfornis  to  roll  out 
(Original  in  possession  of  the  Kolonial  Wirthschaftiiche  Komitee,  Berlin) 


CH.  IV]         COFFEE,   CACAO   OR   CHOCOLATE,   KOLA,   ETC.  73 

seeds  command  a  lower  price.  Treatment  of  the  disease  was  at 
first  almost  entirely  by  excision  of  the  diseased  parts,  but  of  late 
spraying  has  come  in,  the  fruits,  which  are  extremely  liable  to 
attack,  being  sprayed  with  Bordeaux  mixture  or  other  com- 
pound. This  is  about  the  first  case  of  spraying,  now  so  very 
much  in  use  in  colder  countries,  being  employed  on  a  large 
scale  in  the  tropics. 

Another  direction  in  which  science  is  coming  in,  in  Ceylon 
at  any  rate,  is  in  the  use  of  green  manures,  various  leguminous 
plants  being  planted  between  the  rows  of  cacao,  and  sub- 
sequently ploughed  or  dug  in.  In  this  way  the  nitrogen 
available  for  the  cacao  may  be  much  increased  at  small  cost. 

With  the  great  extension  of  cacao  cultivation,  which  is  now 
taken  up  in  nearly  all  tropical  countries,  there  will  presently 
l>e  a  fairly  severe  competition,  and  prices  will  probably  be  very 
low.  Improvement  must  therefore  be  sought  for  by  those 
countries  which  would  keep  ahead  in  this  matter.  Some  of 
the  directions  in  which  this  improvement  may  be  looked  for 
are  in  the  selection  of  better  varieties  for  cultivation,  e.g.  even 
in  the  simple  substitution  of  Criollo  for  Forastero,  or  the 
selection  of  seed  from  trees  that  regularly  bear  large  numbers 
of  good  pods  (for  there  are  well-marked  differences  in  this 
respect).  Another  moderately  easy  thing  to  manage,  and  one 
which  repays  itself,  is  the  careful  grading  of  the  seeds  sent  to 
market.  If  Criollo  (pale  pink  or  brown)  and  Forastero  (purple) 
seeds  are  sent  into  the  market  mixed,  the  price  paid  for  them 
will  of  course  be  the  lower  price,  that  of  the  Forastero,  whereas 
if  they  be  separated,  the  Criollo  seeds  will  fetch  a  much  higher 
price.  Though  at  first  the  two  kinds  of  seeds  look  alike,  it  will 
soon  be  found  possible  to  distinguish  them,  and  coolies  can  be 
trained  to  separate  the  two  kinds,  of  seeds  with  a  fair  amount 
of  certainty.  Prevention  of  disease,  by  spraying  and  in  other 
ways,  is  another  thing  that  requires  careful  attention,  cacao  being 
very  liable  to  various  diseases.  Still  another  direction  in  which 
something  may  be  hoped  for  is  in  the  application  of  green 
manuring,  which  may  give  as  good  results  as  bulk  manuring, 
at  much  less  cost. 

In  most  cacao-growing  countries,  the  laborious  operations 


74  AGRICULTURE   IN   THE  TROPICS  [PT.  II 

of  opening  the  pods,  fermenting  and  washing  the  seeds,  and 
drying  them,  are  all  performed  by  simple  hand  labour,  but 
lately  machinery  has  been  introduced  for  the  purpose  by  an 
American  firm,  and  it  would  seem  probable  that  a  great  saving 
may  be  introduced  in  this  way,  more  especially  on  the  com- 
paratively flat  lands  upon  which  cacao  is  grown  in  many  coun- 
tries. It  is  quite  possible  that  it  is  in  this  direction  that  we 
must  look  for  the  chief  improvements  in  cacao  culture  of  the 
next  decade. 

Kola  or  Cola.  Another  very  important  cultivation,  more 
perhaps  from  the  point  of  view  of  its  local  uses  than  from  that 
of  export,  though  the  latter  is  large,  is  that  of  the  Kola  nut, 
which  is  the  chief  cultivation  in  West  Africa  from  Loango  on 
the  south  to  southern  Senegambia  on  the  north.  The  con- 
sumption of  these  nuts  is  one  of  the  great  features  of  West 
African  life,  they  being  used  both  as  a  food  and  as  a  stimulant. 
They  are  sent  in  token  of  reconciliation,  are  used  like  olives 
before  a  meal,  are  said  to  make  bad  water  drinkable,  are  a  cure 
for  alcoholism,  a  stimulus  to  cheerfulness ;  in  fact  they  take  the 
place  of  tobacco  and  other  things  in  other  countries. 

The  Kola  tree  (Cola  acuminata,  and  perhaps  other  species) 
has  been  introduced  into  other  countries  in  the  tropics,  e.g.  into 
Ceylon,  but  has  not  proved  sufficiently  profitable  to  form  the 
basis  of  any  important  industry,  and  the  export  is  as  yet  prac- 
tically entirely  from  West  Africa.  The  tree  is  closely  related 
to  the  cacao,  and  grows  about  25  to  45  feet  high,  with  panicles 
of  flowers  which  give  rise  to  strings  of  fruits,  each  fruit  having 
two  to  six  rays,  each  ray  a  pod  containing  a  few  seeds,  for  which 
the  tree  is  cultivated.  The  essential  principle  in  these  is 
caffein,  and  they  contain  about  2J°/0  °f  ^,  or  a  g°°d  deal  more 
than  coffee  does.  The  nut  containing  also  a  full  third  of  its 
weight  of  starch,  besides  other  matters,  forms  a  good  food  stuff, 
as  does  cacao,  and  were  it  not  for  its  unpleasant  flavour  would 
probably  compete  very  closely  with  the  latter ;  so  far,  however, 
it  has  only  come  into  use  when  mixed  with  cacao,  and  in 
certain  drinks. 

The  tree  is  rarely  planted  in  plantations,  but  is  cleared  in 


CH.  IV]         COFFEE,   CACAO   OR   CHOCOLATE,    KOLA,   ETC.  75 

the  forest,  or  forms  part  of  the  mixed  cultivation  of  the  West 
Africans.  It  begins  to  bear  at  about  seven  years  old,  and 
produces  perhaps  about  50  fruits  a  year  on  the  average.  The 
seeds  are  gathered,  and  left  for  a  few  days,  when  the  seed 
coats  can  be  easily  rubbed  off,  and  they  are  then  packed  in 
leaves,  and  kept  damp,  so  as  to  travel  as  fresh  as  possible. 
For  export  they  are  carefully  dried  in  the  sun.  The  value  of 
the  exports  from  the  Gold  Coast  Colony  in  1900  was  about 
£120,000. 

Guarana.  This  plant  (Paullinia  Cupana)  is  a  good  deal 
used  in  South  America,  but  is  hardly  exported.  The  tree  is 
not  unlike  the  cacao  tree.  The  fruits  are  collected,  and  laid  in 
water  to  loosen  the  skin,  which  is  then  removed  and  the  fruits 
dried  by  the  fire.  An  infusion  like  chocolate  is  made  from 
them. 


76  [FT.  n 


CHAPTER  Y. 

COCONUTS   AND   OTHER   PALMS. 

Coconuts.  The  coconut1  palm,  Cocos  nucifera,  is  the  most 
widely  cultivated  plant  in  the  tropics,  but,  except  in  Ceylon, 
the  Philippine  Islands,  South  India,  Trinidad  and  parts  of 
Polynesia,  not  as  a  rule  upon  a  large  scale  for  export  of  the 
products,  but  in  the  mixed  cultivation  of  the  peasants.  There 
is  probably  no  single  plant  capable  of  so  large  a  variety  of  uses, 
whether  locally  or  for  export.  So  old  and  so  universal  is  the 
cultivation  in  the  tropics,  that  even  yet  the  original  native 
country  of  the  palm  is  uncertain,  though  opinion  seems  to 
favour  the  western  islands  of  Polynesia  from  which  it  has  been 
carried  by  the  currents  of  the  ocean  to  Malaya,  Ceylon,  India, 
Africa,  etc.  The  fruit  being  enclosed  in  a  thick  fibrous  coating, 
can  be  carried  by  the  sea  for  a  very  long  time  without  losing 
the  power  of  germination,  and  hence  this  palm  is  one  of  the 
earliest  things  to  appear  on  any  newly  formed  land,  such  as  a 
coral  reef,  in  the  tropics. 

While  in  a  small  way  the  cultivation  is  important  in 
America  and  in  Africa,  it  is  to  Ceylon  and  other  eastern  lands 
that  one  must  look  for  large  and  important  plantations.  The 
palm  flourishes  best  in  the  damper  coastal  regions,  but  is  also 
cultivated  inland,  and  up  to  elevations  of  2500  feet  or  over. 
The  cultivation  is  mainly  in  native  hands,  though  in  recent 
years  many  Europeans '  have  invested  in  what  is  sometimes 
called  the  consols  of  planting.  The  palm  is  the  most  common 

1  I  adopt  the  correct  spelling  of  this  word.  It  is  much  to  be  regretted  that 
the  spelling  cocoanut  should  have  crept  in,  as  it  leads  to  much  confusion  with 
cocoa  or  cacao.  Matters  are  further  complicated  by  the  existence  of  coca, 
cocoes,  coco-plum,  coco-yam,  etc. 


CH.  V]  COCONUTS  AND   OTHER  PALMS  77 

and  regular  constituent  of  the  mixed  cultivations  already 
mentioned,  and  described  in  Chapter  XIV.  below. 

The  usual  idea  about  a  palm  is  that  it  grows  vertically 
upwards  and  is  crowned  by  a  tuft  of  leaves.  This,  however, 
is  not  quite  true  about  the  coconut,  the  stem  of  which  is  prac- 
tically never  erect,  but  grows  upwards  in  a  more  or  less  graceful 
curve.  Along  the  sea  coast  the  stems  of  the  outermost  palms 
project  over  the  water,  and  this  is  often  given  as  the  reason  of 
the  curve,  but  in  actual  fact  it  would  seem  to  be  a  case  of  the 
stem  bending  towards  the  light,  as  the  outer  stems  of  a  clump 
usually  all  bend  outwards,  whether  over  water  or  not. 

On  properly  managed  estates  the  palms  are  planted  in 
regular  rows,  and  at  about  25  feet  apart,  whereas  in  the  ordi- 
nary native  garden  they  are  planted  anyhow,  usually  mixed 
with  other  trees,  or  if  planted  alone  then  much  too  closely. 
The  palm  begins  to  bear  fruit  about  the  fifth  year,  and  bears 
for  seventy  or  more  years  thereafter.  The  crop  varies  very 
much,  but  perhaps  on  the  average  is  from  40  to  75  nuts  per 
tree  per  annum  on  an  ordinary  estate. 

The  coconut,  as  might  be  expected,  occurs  in  a  great  many 
varieties  with  rather  small  differences.  The  two  chief  and  most 
conspicuous  groups  of  varieties  are  those  with  green  nuts, 
known  in  Ceylon  as  ordinary  nuts,  and  those  with  yellow  nuts, 
known  in  Ceylon  as  king  coconuts.  Some  kinds  have  a  larger 
yield  of  fibre,  some  give  larger  nuts. 

On  a  good  estate  the  trees  are  planted  out  from  nurseries, 
but  in  the  villagers'  gardens  are  often  planted  out  as  seeds. 
In  Ceylon  and  other  equatorial  countries  they  often  get  but 
little  cultivation  till  they  arrive  at  maturity,  a  fact  which 
appeals  with  some  force  to  the  ordinary  villager,  but  in  India, 
etc.,  greater  care  is  taken  of  them,  especially  in  the  north  about 
Bombay,  etc. 

The  tropical  villager  obtains  from  this  palm  many  of  the 
necessaries  of  life.  The  large  leaves  are  woven  into  "  cadjans  " 
for  thatching,  into  mats,  baskets,  etc. ;  their  stalks  and  midribs 
make  fences,  brooms,  yokes,  and  many  other  utensils.  The 
trunk  affords  rafters,  beams,  canoes,  troughs,  and  many  other 
articles  of  furniture,  etc.  The  bud  or  "  cabbage  "  at  the  apex 


78  AGRICULTURE   IN  THE   TROPICS  [PT.  II 

of  the  stem  (of  course  there  is  only  one,  and  when  this  is 
removed  the  palm  dies,  so  that  it  is  not  as  a  rule  taken  till  the 
palm  is  old)  makes  an  excellent  vegetable  and  is  also  made  into 
preserves,  etc.  When  the  palm  is  flowering,  the  main  flower 
stalk  can  be  tapped  for  "toddy,"  a  drink  like  the  Mexican 
"pulque,"  containing  much  sugar.  Evaporation  of  the  toddy 
furnishes  a  coarse  but  good  sugar  known  as  jaggery ;  its  fermen- 
tation gives  an  alcoholic  drink,  from  which  distillation  produces 
the  strong  spirit  known  as  arrack,  while  further  fermentation 
produces  vinegar. 

The  fruits  while  young  contain  a  pint  or  more  of  cool 
sweetish  watery  fluid,  which  atfords  a  most  refreshing  drink. 
As  the  nut  ripens  the  water  decreases  and  the  kernel  hardens. 
The  nuts  are  gathered  at  about  ten  months  old.  Their  kernels 
are  eaten  raw  or  in  curries  and  in  other  ways,  milk  is  expressed 
from  them  for  flavouring  curries  and  other  purposes,  and  oil 
is  extracted  from  them  by  boiling.  The  commercial  oil,  in 
which  there  is  an  enormous  trade  for  soapmaking  and  other 
uses,  is  obtained  by  first  drying  the  kernels  in  the  sun  or  by 
other  artificial  means  till  they  form  what  is  known  as  "  copra," 
and  then  pressing  this  copra  in  mills.  About  two-thirds  of  the 
weight  is  obtained  as  oil,  and  the  refuse,  "cake"  or  poonac, 
forms  a  valuable  fattening  food  for  cattle  or  poultry.  The  oil 
is  occasionally  used  for  lighting,  but  its  great  use,  especially  in 
Europe  and  America,  is  for  soapmaking ;  it  also  forms  a  good 
hairdressing,  and  is  largely  used  for  the  manufacture  of  candles, 
as  it  separates  under  pressure  into  a  hard  wax-like  body, 
stearine,  and  a  liquid  oleine.  The  shell  of  the  nut,  after  the 
kernel  is  taken  out,  forms  drinking  cups,  bowls,  spoons,  handles, 
and  many  other  things :  it  also  makes  an  excellent  smokeless 
fuel,  and  yields  a  good  charcoal. 

In  recent  years  a  large  industry  has  sprung  up  in  Ceylon  in 
desiccated  coconut,  i.e.  the  kernel  of  the  nut  with  some  of  the 
oil  expressed,  sliced  and  dried  in  special  desiccators.  The  pro- 
duct is  soldered  up  in  lead-lined  boxes,  and  exported  for  use  in 
confectionery. 

The  thick  outer  husk  of  the  coconut,  rarely  seen  in  Europe 
or  in  North  America,  contains  a  large  number  of  long  stout 


OF  THE 

UNIVERSITY 

OF 


CH.  V]         COCONUTS  AND  OTHER  PALMS  79 

fibres  running  lengthwise.  The  villagers  obtain  these  by  split- 
ting the  husks,  rotting  them  in  water,  and  then  beating  out 
the  softer  tissue  from  between  the  fibres.  There  are  also  many 
large  mills  where  special  machinery  is  used  for  preparing  coir, 
as  this  fibre  is  called.  The  uses  of  coir  are  many :  the  fibres 
are  graded  according  to  their  stoutness,  and  used  for  making 
brushes,  yarn,  rope,  mats,  and  many  other  purposes.  There  is 
a  large  export  from  Ceylon  and  other  tropical  countries. 

Though  very  many  tropical  countries  have  more  or  less 
•export  trade  in  the  products  of  the  coconut,  Ceylon,  both  for 
home  consumption  and  for  export,  stands  almost  at  the  top  of 
the  trade,  and  the  figures  of  the  chief  coconut  product  exports 
during  1906  may  be  quoted : 

Coconut  oil        511,720  cwt.  Desiccated  coconut    19,384,546  Ib. 

Copra  424,373  cwt.  Coir  272,548  cwt. 

Poonac  243,011  cwt.  Coconuts  15,787,491 

Besides  a  large  quantity  of  arrack — over  70,000  gallons. 

The  trade  in  coconut  products  continues  to  increase  rapidly 
and,  though  many  new  countries  are  now  taking  part  in  it,  and 
the  extension  of  planting  in  Ceylon  never  ceases,  the  prices 
obtained  have  not  seriously  fallen.  New  uses  are  constantly 
being  discovered  for  the  oil,  etc.  The  complete  removal  from 
the  oil  of  its  "  coconutty "  smell  has  now  almost  been  accom- 
plished, and  butter-like  bodies  can  be  made  from  it,  which  have 
already  an  extensive  use  in  cooking,  and  will  probably  come 
more  and  more  into  use  as  they  are  perfected. 

There  are  many  directions  also  in  which  the  cultivation  of 
the  coconut  is  open  to  improvement.  For  instance,  as  in  cacao, 
the  use  of  green  manures  will  probably  be  found  to  give  better 
crops  at  less  cost,  provided  the  manuring  plants  be  not 
attractive  to  rats,  as  some  that  have  been  tried  or  suggested, 
e.g.  ground-nuts,  are.  More  careful  cultivation  is  required,  and 
in  native  gardens  the  distance  apart  of  the  palms  should  often 
be  much  increased.  This  is  a  difficult  point  to  teach  to  a  native 
of  the  tropics;  he  almost  always  has  the  idea  that  the  more 
plants  he  can  get  on  to  his  ground,  the  larger  return  he  will  get. 
A  striking  instance  of  this  came  under  my  notice  some  years 


80  AGRICULTURE   IN   THE   TROPICS  [PT.  II 

ago.  An  estate  near  to  Peradeniya,  supposed  to  be  a  cacao 
estate,  had  been  continually  planted  up  with  coconuts,  areca 
nuts,  pepper,  crotons,  and  other  products,  till  in  1902  the 
average  number  of  trees  per  acre  was  no  less  than  512.  The 
estate  then  gave  \  cwt.  of  dry  cacao  per  acre,  and  a  small 
quantity  of  the  other  products,  and  was  losing  money  at  the 
rate  of  Rs.  40  per  acre  per  annum.  In  1902  a  system  of 
cutting  out  the  extra  trees  was  adopted,  and  now  the  estate 
contains  only  about  300  trees  per  acre,  almost  all  cacao,  the 
cacao  crop  is  3|  cwts.  per  acre,  and  the  estate  is  profitable. 

Another  direction  in  which  great  care  is  required  is  in  the 
selection  of  nuts  for  seed  ;  the  very  best  nuts,  i.e.  regarded  from 
the  point  of  view  of  the  object  of  the  plantation,  whether  for 
copra,  for  nuts,  for  desiccated  coconut,  for  oil,  or  for  other 
purposes,  should  always  be  picked  for  seed,  to  improve  the  next 
generation.  On  the  whole  this  has  been  done  in  Ceylon  though 
not  in  the  Seychelle  Islands,  and  a  recent  lot  of  Ceylon  nuts 
sent  there  was  found  to  exceed  the  local  nuts  sometimes  in  the 
proportion  of  three  to  one.  It  is  also  possible  that  careful 
hybridisation  might  improve  the  varieties  of  the  palm  in  culti- 
vation. Different  varieties  should  be  tried  in  the  same  place, 
for  it  is  quite  possible  that  a  better  return  might,  for  example, 
be  obtained  by  changing  the  variety  cultivated,  e.g.  by  abandon- 
ing the  cultivation  of  oil  nuts,  and  taking  to  good  fibre  nuts. 
It  is  also  possible  that  quickly  maturing  nuts  might  be  selected, 
which  would  in  time  considerably  reduce  the  period  of  waiting 
for  the  palms  to  flower  (now  about  five  or  six  years). 

A  tendency  in  coconut  cultivation  just  now  seems  to  be  the 
opening  of  very  large  plantations  under  European  management. 
Such  plantations  can  turn  out  large  and  uniform  supplies  of 
copra,  for  instance,  whereas  the  copra  obtained  from  the  in- 
numerable small  native  plantations  is  of  very  variable  quality. 

Palmyra  Palm.  Another  palm  of  considerable  importance 
is  the  Palmyra  palm  (Borassus  flabellifer)  supposed  to  be  a 
native  of  both  tropical  Africa  and  tropical  Asia,  and  now  very 
extensively  cultivated  in  tropical  India  and  Ceylon,  especially 
in  districts  which  are  a  trifle  dry  for  the  coconut.  It  is 


CH.  V]  COCONUTS   AND   OTHER   PALMS  81 

a  tall  straight-growing  palm,  fruiting  only  at  one  season  of 
the  year.  It  has  innumerable  native  and  local  uses,  an  old 
Tamil  song  enumerating  801,  but  from  the  point  of  view  of 
export  trade,  the  most  important  product  of  the  palm  is  the 
fibres  at  the  bases  of  the  leaves,  which  are  exported  under  the 
name  of  Palmyra  fibre,  and  used  for  making  brushes,  hard 
brooms,  and  for  other  purposes.  As  far  as  local  uses  are 
concerned,  the  greatest  is  the  preparation  of  sugar  or  jaggery, 
and  of  toddy  for  drinking,  whilst  arrack  is  also  made.  The 
fruit  is  edible,  the  large  fan-shaped  leaves  are  used  as  thatch, 
and  for  fencing,  the  leaves  cut  into  strips  are  employed  in 
weaving  baskets,  toys,  matting,  etc.,  the  stems  are  used  as 
building  posts  and  rafters,  and  as  piles  in  salt  water,  for  which 
purpose  they  are  very  well  adapted.  In  many  other  ways  this 
palm  is  almost  as  useful  as  the  coconut. 

Areca  Palm.  This  is  another  palm  the  cultivation  of 
which  is  of  great  importance  in  the  east,  for  nearly  every 
native  "  chews  betel,"  i.e.  he  chews  a  mixture  of  areca  nut,  lime, 
and  various  flavouring  matters,  such  as  tobacco  or  cardamoms, 
wrapped  up  in  a  leaf  of  the  betel  pepper,  Piper  Betle.  This 
act  turns  the  saliva  red  like  blood,  and  is  somewhat  disgusting 
to  watch,  but  it  must  not  be  hastily  condemned.  For  one 
thing  it  gives  the  rice-feeding  native  some  lime  in  his  diet, 
an  item  which  is  often  lacking  in  it.  Now  that  betel  chewing 
is  being  to  some  extent  replaced  by  smoking,  this  question 
of  how  to  provide  lime  becomes  more  pressing.  The  cultiva- 
tion of  this  palm  is  carried  on  upon  a  large  scale  in  Ceylon, 
India,  Java,  etc.,  usually  in  the  mixed  garden  cultivation  of 
the  villagers,  but  sometimes  in  regular  plantations.  The  palm 
bears  at  about  the  sixth  year,  and  when  in  full  fruit  each  gives 
about  300  nuts  a  year. 

Kitul  or  Toddy  Palm.      This  palm  (Caryota  urens)  is 

cultivated  in  the  mixed  garden  cultivation  of  the  natives  of 

Ceylon  and  wherever  else  it  is  indigenous.     The  flower  stalk  is 

tapped  for  toddy,  just  as  in  the  coconut,  and  sugar  is  also  made 

w.  6 


82  AGRICULTURE   IN   THE  TROPICS  [PT.  II 

from  it.     From  the  bases  of  the  leaves  a  fibre  is  got  as  in  the 
Palmyra  palm. 

Other  palms  are  also  used,  e.g.  those  mentioned  under  sugar 
in  a  previous  chapter,  the  talipot  (Corypha  umbraculifera) 
the  leaves  of  which  provide  umbrellas,  books,  and  other  things, 
the  royal  and  cabbage  palms  of  Cuba  (Oreodoxa  regia  and 
oleracea),  the  oil  palm  of  West  Africa  (below),  and  many 
others. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

SPICES. 

Cinnamon.  This  spice  was  the  earliest  article  of  export 
from  Ceylon  upon  any  important  scale,  and  was  much  the  most 
famous  of  the  island's  early  exports  to  Europe.  Until  1833  its 
cultivation  was  a  Government  monopoly,  first  under  the  Dutch 
and  afterwards  under  the  British  Government.  "  The  trade  was 
at  its  height  when  Nees  wrote  a  disquisition  upon  it  in  1823  ;  but 
opinion  was  already  arraying  itself  against  the  rigidly  exclusive 
system  under  which  it  was  conducted.  This  was  looked  upon 
as  the  more  unjustifiable,  owing  to  the  popular  belief  that  the 
monopoly  was  one  created  by  nature;  and  that  prohibitions 
became  vexatious  where  competition  was  impossible.  Accord- 
ingly in  1832  the  odious  monopoly  was  abandoned;  the 
Government  ceased  to  be  the  sole  exporters  of  cinnamon,  and 
thenceforward  the  merchants  of  Colombo  and  Galle  were  per- 
mitted to  take  a  share  in  the  trade,  on  paying  to  the  crown  an 
export  duty  of  three  shillings  a  pound,  which  was  afterwards 
reduced  to  one. 

"  The  adoption  of  the  first  step  inevitably  necessitated  a 
second.  The  merchants  felt,  and  with  justice,  that  the  struggle 
was  unequal  so  long  as  the  Government,  with  its  great  estates 
and  large  capital,  was  their  opposing  competitor ;  and  hence,  in 
1840,  the  final  expedient  was  adopted  by  the  crown  of  divesting 
itself  altogether  of  its  property  in  the  plantations." 

Since  that  period  the  cultivation  has  greatly  extended, 
chiefly  on  the  light  sandy  soils  near  the  southwest  coast,  where 
the  spice  is  native ;  and  though  various  other  countries  grow 
trifling  quantities,  no  serious  competitor  has  yet  arisen  for 

6—2 


84  AGRICULTURE   IN  THE  TROPICS  [PT.  II 

Ceylon.  At  the  present  time  about  40,000  acres  are  in  culti- 
vation. Left  to  itself,  the  cinnamon  plant  (Cinnamomum 
zeylanicum)  would  form  a  small  tree,  but  in  cultivation  it  is 
kept  coppiced,  sending  up  long  willowy  shoots,  whose  bark, 
peeled  off  and  dried  and  rolled  into  quills,  forms  the  spice  of 
commerce.  The  cinnamon  peelers  form  a  separate  caste  among 
the  Sinhalese.  The  finer  quills  are  made  up  into  bales,  while 
an  inferior  grade  is  shipped  under  the  name  "  chips." 

A  considerable  quantity  of  cinnamon  oil  is  distilled  in  the 
island  from  broken  quills  and  larger  fragments  of  bark. 
Another  oil,  with  something  of  the  smell  of  oil  of  cloves,  is 
distilled  from  the  leaves,  but  only  rarely,  while  camphor  is 
obtained  from  the  roots. 

Cinnamon  is  used  mainly  in  confectionery,  incense,  etc.  A 
considerable  proportion  of  the  exported  chips  are  used  in 
Europe  for  the  distillation  of  oil.  The  exports  from  Ceylon 
in  recent  years  have  been : 

Bales  Chips 

1901  2,756,270  Ibs.         1,516,083  Ibs. 

1902  2,555,313  1,763,679 

1903  2,998,714  2,160,352 

1904  2,871,556  2,368,351 

1905  2,896,049  2,235,395 

The  cultivation  and  harvesting  of  cinnamon  being  very  simple, 
and  Ceylon  having  a  practical  monopoly  of  the  trade,  which  is 
no  longer  seriously  increasing,  it  is  somewhat  difficult  to  make 
any  recommendations  for  the  improvement  of  this  cultivation. 
Green  manuring  may  probably  prove  of  considerable  use,  and 
more  careful  planting  and  cultivation  are  required.  A  careful 
study  of  the  formation  of  the  oil  and  its  best  method  of  dis- 
tillation are  also  needed.  It  would  seem,  on  the  face  of  it,  rather 
absurd  that  so  much  oil  should  have  to  be  made  in  Europe,  and 
that  all  the  labour  of  making  up  the  chips  should  in  a  sense  be 
wasted.  It  is  quite  possible  that  oil  may  be  profitably  obtained 
from  the  green  twigs. 

Pepper.  This  was  the  great  staple  of  the  spice  trade  of 
the  Middle  Ages,  and  was  then  exported  solely  from  Malabar. 


XIII  (a).     Preparing  Cinnamon 


XIII  (b).     Picking  Cardamoms 


CH.  Vl]  SPICES  85 

Five  ships  a  year  were  loaded  with  it  in  the  days  of  Portuguese 
supremacy.  Gradually  the  cultivation  in  India  (and  Ceylon) 
died  away,  and  the  Straits  Settlements  took  the  chief  place. 

There  is  a  very  considerable  trade  in  this  spice,  as  the 
following  figures  of  export  from  the  Straits  Settlements  will 

show : 

pikuls1  value 

Exports  in  1902     340,687  $12,694,070 

The  common  pepper,  Piper  nigrum,  is  a  native  of  south- 
eastern Asia,  and  is  a  climbing  plant  which  if  left  alone  grows 
to  a  height  of  about  twenty  feet.  It  is  cultivated  in  damp 
climates,  with  a  rainfall  of  80  inches,  or  over,  in  the  shade  of 
large  trees,  at  distances  of  about  seven  feet  apart,  being  planted 
as  cuttings.  Sometimes  the  cuttings  are  trained  upon  artificial 
supports,  sometimes  they  are  trained  up  the  living  trees  which 
were  left  for  shade.  The  vine  does  not  flower  for  about  three 
years,  and  comes  into  full  bearing  some  years  later.  The  fruit, 
which  is  the  part  to  be  gathered,  is  a  string  of  small  berries, 
greenish  at  first,  then  reddish,  and  finally  yellow.  Gathered 
and  dried  as  they  are,  these  form  black  pepper,  but  if  the  outer 
skins  are  removed  (in  various  ways  in  different  countries)  before 
they  are  dried,  they  form  white  pepper.  The  yield  is  said 
to  be  very  variable,  differing  in  different  years,  and  varying 
from  half  a  pound  to  seven  pounds  a  plant. 

This  difference  in  the  yield  points  out  one  way  in  which  it  is 
very  probable  that  the  yield  of  pepper  can  be  improved,  namely 
by  a  careful  selection  of  seed  from  the  best  bearers.  A  careful 
study  of  the  manuring  of  pepper  is  also  required,  with  a  view  to 
finding  out  which  manures  give  the  best  returns. 

Betel-Pepper  (Piper  Betle)  is  largely  cultivated  in  Ceylon, 
India,  Java,  and  other  Eastern  countries  for  its  leaves,  which 
are  chewed  with  lime  and  with  the  fruits  of  Areca  palms  in 
the  universal  masticatory.  The  chewing  of  the  leaves,  which 
contain  an  oil,  is  said  to  be  good  for  the  health,  and  the  lime 
provides  an  item  which  is  often  somewhat  lacking  in  the  diet 
of  a  rice-feeding  people. 

The  plants  are  grown  as  cuttings,  sometimes  against  poles, 

1  Apikul=1331bs. 


86  AGRICULTURE   IN   THE  TROPICS  [PT.  II 

sometimes  against  planted  supports.  The  ground  is  very  care- 
fully and  deeply  tilled,  and  manuring  is  carried  out  with  great 
care.  In  Ceylon  it  is  done  only  with  the  leaves  of  Croton 
lacciferum,  other  manures  being  rejected.  The  leaves  are 
picked  after  the  first  year,  and  in  different  places  the  plant  is 
allowed  to  go  on  from  one  to  six  or  more  years  in  bearing. 

The  cultivation  is  very  profitable,  but  there  is  a  large 
outlay  before  any  return  can  be  obtained,  and  considerable 
risks  are  run  from  attacks  of  disease. 

Cardamoms.  Though  an  important  industry  in  Ceylon 
and  Southern  India,  this  is  as  yet  a  comparatively  unknown 
spice  in  Europe  or  America.  It  is  chiefly  used  in  India  for 
confectionery,  cooking,  and  masticating,  but  is  steadily  coming 
into  use  elsewhere,  and  deserves  to  be  more  widely  known. 
About  10,000  acres  are  now  devoted  to  the  growth  of  this  spice 
in  Ceylon,  and  about  the  same  in  Southern  India.  In  Ceylon 
it  is  chiefly  grown  in  the  mountain  districts  north  of  Kandy, 
at  an  elevation  of  3000  to  4000  feet. 

The  plant  itself  (Elettaria  Cardamomum)  belongs  to  the 
ginger  family,  and  is  not  unlike  ginger  in  appearance,  but  very 
much  larger,  growing  to  a  height  of  about  5  to  10  feet.  It  is 
cultivated  in  clumps  under  the  shade  of  the  trees  of  the  forest, 
which  has  its  undergrowth  thinned  out  to  make  room  for  it. 
The  flowers  are  borne  in  little  racemes,  and  are  succeeded  by 
little  capsule  fruits,  which  are  picked,  spread  out  in  trays  or  on 
barbecues  (or  drying  grounds),  and  slowly  dried  and  bleached. 
The  essential  part  of  the  spice  is  the  seed  contained  in  the 
capsules,  but  the  latter  are  always  dried  with  the  seeds,  and  so 
far  as  possible  without  splitting.  If  the  seeds  were  sold  without 
the  capsule,  they  could  be  easily  adulterated  with  other  similar 
and  less  valuable  seeds.  Lately  a  considerable  demand  for  green 
or  unbleached  cardamoms  has  sprung  up. 

The  exports  of  cardamoms  from  Ceylon  in  recent  years,  have 

been 

1900  537,455  Ibs.          1904   995,680  Ibs. 

1901  559,704  1905   829,276 

1902  615,922  1906   685,256 

1903  909,418 


CH.  VI]  SPICES  87 

Until  about  six  years  ago  the  cultivation  of  this  spice  was 
very  profitable,  and  of  course  there  was  a  rush  into  planting  it, 
with  results  which  may  be  anticipated.  A  cess  has  now  been 
established  in  Ceylon,  similar  to  that  on  tea,  every  pound 
of  cardamoms  exported  having  to  pay  one  cent1,  and  with  the 
produce  of  this  cess  it  is  intended  to  advertise  the  spice  and  to 
endeavour  to  open  new  markets  for  its  consumption.  It  is  as 
yet  too  early  to  speak  of  the  success  or  otherwise  of  this 
measure,  but  in  the  meantime  there  has  been  a  drop  from  the 
enormous  figures  of  export  of  1904. 

Nutmegs.  The  nutmeg  plant  (Myristica  moschata  Thunb., 
M.  fragrans  Houtt.)  is  a  native  of  the  Molucca  islands,  formerly 
known  as  the  Spice  islands.  For  a  long  time  the  Dutch  were 
able  to  maintain  a  monopoly  of  this  spice,  as  of  others,  burning 
any  excessive  supply ;  but  it  was  finally  carried  by  the  French 
to  Mauritius  and  Cayenne,  and  has  gradually  become  distri- 
buted over  the  world.  It  is  said  that  one  of  the  ways  in  which 
it  was  first  carried  from  the  Moluccas  was  by  the  large  fruit- 
eating  pigeons,  which  swallow  the  whole  seed,  large  as  it  is,  for 
the  sake  of  the  mace,  and  afterwards  throw  it  up. 

The  nutmeg  plant  forms  a  small  tree,  from  30  to  50  feet  in 
height,  and  is  best  cultivated  in  a  loamy  soil,  at  a  height  not 
over  1500  or  1800  feet  above  the  sea.  It  is  raised  from  seed, 
and  the  trees  are  planted  about  30  feet  apart.  The  great 
disadvantage  in  cultivating  the  nutmeg  is  that  it  is  dioecious,  i.e. 
that  it  bears  male  flowers  on  one  tree,  and  female  on  another. 
Consequently  the  planter  is  liable  to  find,  after  waiting  about 
seven  years  for  the  trees  to  flower,  that  he  has  got  far  too 
many  male  trees,  which  of  course  are  useless  for  fruit.  On  the 
average,  perhaps,  about  half  the  trees  will  prove  male,  when 
really  one  in  about  five  or  six  is  sufficient.  Attempts  have  of 
late  been  made  to  graft  male  shoots  on  to  the  female  trees,  but 
of  course  this  does  not  get  over  the  difficulty  of  distinguishing 
the  trees  when  young. 

The  tree  bears  when  about  seven  years  old,  and,  to  judge 
from  those  in  the  Peradeniya  gardens  in  Ceylon,  until  at  least 

1  I.e.  every  hundredweight  He.  1.12  or  1«.  Qd. 


88  AGRICULTURE   IN   THE   TROPICS  [PT.  II 

a  hundred  years  old.  The  fruit  is  like  a  large  yellowish  plum, 
with  a  fleshy  rind,  which  when  fully  ripe  splits  into  two  halves, 
exposing  the  large  brown  nutmeg  in  the  middle,  enclosed  in  an 
irregular  coating  of  red  mace,  which  runs  in  thick  branching 
lines  over  the  nutmeg.  The  mace  is  separated  from  the  nutmeg, 
and  both  are  dried  and  exported,  the  tree  thus  yielding  two 
spices,  of  which  the  mace  is  perhaps  the  more  in  demand,  so 
that  some  years  ago  an  order  was  sent  to  a  Ceylon  planting 
company  from  the  London  office,  that  they  were  to  grow  more 
mace,  and  fewer  nutmegs.  The  fleshy  rind  of  the  fruit  makes 
an  excellent  jelly. 

Cloves.  The  clove,  Eugenia  caryophyllata  (or  in  the  older 
books  Caryophyllus  aromaticus),  is  also  a  native  of  the  Moluccas, 
and  for  a  long  time  the  Dutch  were  able  to  maintain  a  mono- 
poly there,  destroying  the  trees  everywhere  else.  Finally,  how- 
ever, the  French  carried  it  to  Cayenne,  and  from  thence  it  got 
to  the  West  Indies,  and  now  is  all  over  the  world. 

The  plant  is  a  small  tree,  about  thirty  feet  high,  and  is 
cultivated  like  the  nutmeg,  in  loamy  soil,  not  too  near  to  the 
sea,  and  up  to  elevations  of  perhaps  1500  feet.  It  begins 
to  yield  at  the  sixth  year.  The  spice  is  the  unexpanded  buds, 
which  occur  in  little  clusters  at  the  ends  of  the  branches,  and 
are  carefully  knocked  off  with  bamboos,  or  picked.  They  are 
dried  in  the  sun,  and  exported. 

Pimento,  or  Allspice.  This  plant,  Pimenta  officinalis,  is 
a  native  of  Jamaica  and  other  West  Indian  islands,  but  the 
trade  in  it  is  practically  entirely  in  the  hands  of  Jamaica.  The 
plant  grows  into  a  small  tree,  and  the  unripe  fruits  are  picked 
and  dried.  They  are  of  the  size  of  a  small  pea,  and  have  a 
sort  of  combination  of  the  flavours  of  cinnamon,  cloves,  and 
nutmegs,  whence  the  name  allspice. 

From  the  leaves  of  the  pimento,  and  from  an  allied  species 
of  Pimenta,  P.  acris,  an  essential  oil — bay-oil — is  distilled,  and 
this  is  afterwards  mixed  with  rum  to  form  the  well-known 
bay-rum. 

Ginger.  This  plant,  Zingiber  officinale,  is  a  native  of 
south-eastern  Asia,  but  is  now  more  cultivated  in  Jamaica  than 


CH.  VI]  SPICES  89 

almost  anywhere  else,  though  of  late  bananas  are  being  planted 
on  much  of  the  land  formerly  occupied  by  ginger,  and  give  an 
equal  or  better  return  with  less  work.  It  is  a  small  herb,  with 
a  stout  underground  rhizome  or  root-stock,  known  to  planters 
as  a  race,  which  is  the  actual  spice.  The  plant  grows  to  about 
one  to  three  feet  high,  and  the  flowers  come  off  on  separate 
branches  from  the  root-stock.  The  plant  must  be  grown  in 
good  soil,  at  moderate  elevations,  and  bears  within  the  year. 
The  races  are  carefully  dug  up,  placed  in  boiling  water  for  a 
few  minutes,  and  then  dried  in  the  sun.  More  often  they 
are  carefully  cleaned,  and  the  whole  of  the  dark  outer  skin 
removed  with  a  knife,  and  dried  after  washing,  without  boiling. 
The  produce  of  the  latter  method  is  known  as  uncoated,  scraped, 
or  white  ginger,  in  contradistinction  to  the  coated,  unscraped, 
or  black  ginger  prepared  by  the  first  method. 

Careful  selection  is  required  in  this  plant,  to  pick  out  the 
races  giving  the  largest  return,  and  the  best  flavoured  ginger. 

Vanilla.  This  plant  (Vanilla  planifolia)  is  wild  in  Mexico, 
and  the  Aztecs  were  found  to  be  using  it  to  flavour  chocolate 
at  the  date  of  the  Spanish  conquest.  It  is  a  climbing  orchid, 
and  the  flavour  is  found  in  the  ripe  pods.  It  is  usually  culti- 
vated under  small  trees,  e.g.  physic  nuts  (Jatropha  Curcas)  up 
which  it  climbs,  and  bamboos  are  placed  across  between  the 
trees  at  a  height  of  about  six  feet,  upon  which  the  orchids  are 
then  trained.  The  flowers  require  to  be  artificially  fertilised, 
and  the  pods,  when  ripe,  are  gathered,  placed  for  half  a  minute 
in  hot,  nearly  boiling  water,  and  then  exposed  to  the  sun,  being 
rolled  up  tightly  to  ferment  every  night  until  dry.  When 
brown  and  pliable  they  are  ready,  and  are  then  straightened 
out  and  tied  together  in  bundles. 

Vanilla  is  cultivated  in  a  great  many  tropical  countries, 
but  the  great  overproduction  and  the  competition  of  artificial 
vanillin  (the  substance  upon  which  the  flavour  depends)  have 
reduced  it  to  a  low  level  of  prosperity. 


90  [FT.  ii 


CHAPTER  VII. 

FRUITS   AND   VEGETABLES. 

Fruits.  The  tropical  zone  furnishes  a  very  large  number 
of  wild  fruits  to  which  the  late  Dr  Trimen's  judgment — that 
they  are  edible  but  not  worth  eating — may  in  general  be 
applied.  At  the  same  time  they  are  by  no  means  usually  so 
inedible  as  the  wild  fruits  of  the  north,  from  which  the  plum, 
the  apple,  the  gooseberry,  etc.  have  been  produced,  and  there 
is  consequently  reason  to  hope  that  in  the  future  we  may  get 
some  very  fine  fruits  from  the  tropics,  when  selection  has  been 
properly  applied.  What  has  been  done  in  the  past  with  the 
mango,  the  pine-apple,  the  plantain,  gives  good  ground  for  hope 
in  this  respect,  the  more  now  that  we  are  beginning,  thanks  to 
the  work  of  Mendel,  Bateson,  and  others,  to  understand  the 
principles  upon  which  to  work. 

Though  fruit  is  everywhere  cultivated,  there  is  no  actual 
export  trade  in  it  except  in  a  few  places.  Many  parts  of 
northern  India  grow  fruit  for  the  Calcutta  and  other  markets, 
and  in  Ceylon  there  is  a  considerable  trade  in  growing  plantains 
for  the  towns,  but  only  in  the  West  Indies  is  there  any  export 
trade  worth  mention,  and  there  chiefly  in  Jamaica,  as  the 
following  figures  of  export  in  1902-3  indicate: 

Exports  of  fruit : 

Jamaica  £1,249,544 

Other  islands  13,150 

Jamaica  Exports  : 

Bananas  £1,134,750 

Oranges  101,195 

Other  fruits  13,599 

Jamaica  Export : 

To  United  States  £1,133,362 

Great  Britain  98,263 

Elsewhere  17,929 


CH.  VII]  FRUITS   AND  VEGETABLES  91 

The  most  popular  fruit  with  the  people  of  colder  climates  is 
of  course  the  plantain  or  banana  (Musa  paradisiaca),  which  is 
now  consumed  in  very  large  quantities,  and  is  largely  cultivated 
for  the  market  in  Nicaragua,  the  West  Indies  and  the  Canary 
Islands.  The  plant  grows  from  suckers  which  are  planted 
out  at  regular  intervals.  Each  produces  what  appears  to  be 
an  erect  stem  about  8  to  12  feet  high,  but  in  reality  this  is 
made  up  of  the  bases  of  the  leaves  coiled  round  one  another, 
and  the  real  stem  is  a  root-stock  below  the  ground.  Presently 
the  flowering  shoot  comes  right  up  through  the  coiled  leaf 
bases,  and  produces  a  drooping  spike  of  flowers  at  the  top  of 
the  plant.  The  fruits  are  produced  independently  of  the  ferti- 
lisation of  the  flowers,  and  though  in  the  wild  plantain  they 
are  full  of  seeds,  in  the  cultivated  one  they  produce  seed  but 
rarely,  and  then  only  one  or  two  infertile  ones.  The  flower 
head  that  crowns  the  stalk  is  often  cooked  as  a  vegetable. 

There  are  many  varieties  of  the  banana,  but  as  a  rule  only 
one  kind  is  seen  in  England,  this  being  the  one  which  produces 
most  freely,  and  at  the  same  time  stands  being  carried  long 
distances,  while  it  ripens  on  the  way.  Many  of  the  other 
varieties  are  preferable  to  this  one,  being  more  soft  and  mealy. 
One  of  the  favourite  ones  in  the  east  is  a  dull  red  colour  and 
very  large. 

The  name  banana,  by  which  this  fruit  is  known  in  England 
and  the  United  States,  is  confined  in  the  tropics  to  the  West 
Indies,  while  in  India  and  Ceylon  it  is  termed  the  plantain,  a 
name  applied  in  the  west  only  to  the  cooking  variety. 

The  pineapple  (Ananassa  sativa)  is  another  very  popular 
fruit  in  the  north,  and  at  one  time  hothouse  pines  were  highly 
favoured.  Now,  however,  with  the  large  cultivation  that  goes 
on  in  the  tropics,  the  fruit  has  cheapened  so  much  that  hot- 
house culture  has  almost  died  out.  It  is  cultivated  on  open 
land,  and  very  carefully  packed  for  export,  each  fruit  in  a 
separate  compartment  of  a  crate.  Another  very  considerable 
trade  is  that  in  tinned  pineapples  from  Singapore,  which  is  in 
the  hands  of  the  Chinese  in  that  port. 

The  pine  occurs  in  many  varieties.  The  largest  is  perhaps 
the  Smooth  Cayenne  as  grown  in  Ceylon,  where  on  good  rich 


92  AGRICULTURE   IN   THE  TROPICS  [PT.  II 

soils  it  has  reached  a  weight  of  23J  Ibs.,  with  an  excellent 
flavour. 

The  mango  (Mangifera  indica)  is  of  course  an  Indian  fruit, 
and  the  really  delicately  flavoured  mangoes  can  as  a  rule  only  be 
got  in  a  few  favoured  places  in  India,  but  of  late  the  fruit  has 
been  grown  in  the  West  Indies,  and  a  few  have  been  sold  in 
London  and  elsewhere.  A  small  trade  also  goes  on  between 
Bombay  and  London  in  the  same  fruit.  The  chief  difficulty  is 
the  packing  of  the  very  rich  and  juicy  fruit  to  stand  the  long 
voyage,  and  probably  this  will  for  some  time  stand  in  the  way  of 
introducing  really  good  mangoes  to  Europe. 

As  cultivated  from  time  immemorial  in  the  east,  the  mango 
is  one  of  the  commonest  fruits,  and  occurs  in  perhaps  as  many 
as  100  varieties.  Of  these  only  a  few  are  really  good  to  the 
European  taste,  most  of  them  having  about  them  more  or  less 
of  the  stringiness  and  flavour  of  the  wild  mango,  which  made 
some  one  describe  the  fruit  as  tasting  like  a  ball  of  cotton  dipped 
in  turpentine.  The  differences  between  these  varieties  are 
perhaps  greater  than  in  almost  any  other  fruit,  and  no  two 
fruits  could  be  imagined  more  distinct  in  look  and  even  in 
taste  than  the  little  red  "  plum "  mangoes  which  look  just 
like  Victoria  plums,  and  the  large  green  "  rupee "  mangoes 
weighing  many  pounds  each. 

The  exquisite  taste  of  a  really  good  mango,  as  one  may  at 
times  get  it  in  Bombay  or  Poona,  is  a  revelation,  and  it  is  much 
to  be  desired  that  this  fruit  should  appear  in  European  com- 
merce in  really  good  condition. 

The  mango  is  usually  cultivated  casually  among  other  trees 
in  the  common  mixed  cultivation  of  native  gardens,  but  in  some 
places,  especially  in  Western  India,  there  are  real  orchards  of 
nothing  but  mangoes,  the  trees  growing  to  about  30  feet  in 
height.  These  orchards  are  very  carefully  tended,  and  contain 
nothing  but  the  best  varieties,  carefully  grafted  on  to  hardy 
stocks. 

The  orange  (Citrus  Aurantium)  though  of  course  really  a 
sub-tropical  cultivation,  is  another  fruit  very  largely  cultivated 
throughout  the  tropics,  but  is  only  exported  from  the  West 
Indies,  where  the  industry  has  grown  to  considerable  size. 


CH.  VII]  FRUITS    AND    VEGETABLES  93 

The  common  orange  grown  in  Cuba  is  perhaps  the  best  orange 
in  the  world,  and  those  grown  in  the  other  West  Indian  islands 
are  also  very  good.  The  trees  there  yield  very  heavily,  up  to 
3000  or  4000  oranges  a  tree  a  year,  it  is  said,  and  the  industry 
is  now  a  very  considerable  one. 

In  Ceylon  and  the  other  eastern  countries  the  cultivation  of 
oranges  for  market  is  not  engaged  in,  and  the  local  oranges  are 
in  general  rather  poor  (except  in  north-east  India).  Further- 
more, in  recent  years  Australian  and  Italian  oranges  have  been 
imported  in  large  quantities,  and  this  has  still  further  dis- 
couraged any  local  attempts  to  grow  them. 

The  lime  (Citrus  medica  var.  acida)  comes  next  to  the 
orange  in  importance,  and  there  is  a  considerable  industry  in 
Montserrat  and  other  West  Indian  islands  in  exporting  the 
preserved  juice  to  Europe  and  America.  As  this  juice,  pleasant 
though  it  is,  has  only  a  very  slight  resemblance  indeed  to  the 
juice  of  the  fresh  limes,  it  would  seem  as  if  it  might  be  worth 
while  exporting  the  latter  themselves  to  Europe,  where  people 
might  then  make  fresh  "  lime  and  soda  " — a  very  popular  drink 
in  the  east. 

The  lime  is  a  near  relative  of  the  orange,  and  grows  on  very 
similar  trees,  and  is  in  general  cultivated  in  the  same  manner. 

Of  late  the  trade  in  lime  juice  is  showing  a  change. 
Instead  of  exporting  the  concentrated  juice,  it  is  carefully 
neutralised  with  fine  prepared  chalk,  and  the  resulting  citrate 
of  calcium  dried  and  exported  in  airtight  receptacles.  From 
this  citric  acid  is  made  in  Europe  and  America. 

A  few  other  fruits  require  mention  here,  as,  though  they 
are  not  exported  to  Europe  or  America,  they  are  of  enormous 
importance  within  the  tropics,  furnishing  a  large  proportion  of 
their  food  to  the  inhabitants.  Thus  the  jak  fruit  (Artocarpus 
integrifolia),  a  huge  fleshy  fruit  which  may  weigh  30  Ibs.  or 
over,  is  universally  cultivated  in  Ceylon  and  southern  India, 
and  common  in  other  tropical  countries.  The  disagreeable 
smell  of  the  fruit  renders  it  unpalatable  to  Europeans,  but  it  is 
one  of  the  staples  of  life  to  the  ordinary  villager.  Its  place  is 
largely  taken  in  the  Malay  countries  by  the  durian  (Durio 
jzibethinus),  a  fruit  with  an  exceedingly  disagreeable  and  pene- 


94  AGRICULTURE   IN   THE  TROPICS  [PT.  II 

trating  smell  of  mustard  oil,  but  one  of  which  most  people  who 
can  get  over  their  dislike  for  the  smell  (which  is  mainly  in  the 
rind,  whereas  one  eats  the  coats  of  the  seeds)  become  almost 
inordinately  fond,  the  flavour  being  very  good,  and  varying  a 
good  deal  from  fruit  to  fruit.  Wallace  in  his  Malay  Archipelago 
says  that  it  is  worth  a  journey  to  the  east  to  eat  this  fruit. 
The  objections  of  smell  do  not  apply  to  the  breadfruit  (Arto- 
carpus  incisa),  which  is  one  of  the  staples  of  life  in  the  coastal 
districts  of  the  equatorial  regions,  and  which,  when  properly 
cooked,  is  very  good  eating.  There  is  a  possibility  that  this 
fruit  would  meet  with  favour  in  Europe. 

These  fruits,  providing  a  great  deal  of  nutriment,  are  almost 
"  food  products,"  but  there  are  others  eaten  more   for  their 
flavour,  and  some  of  these  are  very  good,  and  would  be  worth 
taking  pains  with,  and  introducing  into  the  markets  of  the 
north.     Among  the  best  of  these  is  the  mangosteen  (Garcinia 
Mangostana) ;   the  white  fleshy  coat  of  the  seed  of  this  is  one 
of  the  most  delicately  flavoured  of  fruits.     The  cherimoyer  of 
Peru  (Anona  Cherimolia)  is  also  exquisitely  flavoured,  and  the 
other  species  of  Anona,  such  as  A.  squamosa  the  sweet-sop  or 
sugar  apple,  A.  muricata  the  sour-sop,  A.  reticulata  the  custard 
apple,  all  of  which  are  sometimes  seen  in  European  markets, 
are   also    very   pleasantly   flavoured.      Another   tropical    fruit 
which  should  become  popular  in  the  north   is  the  Aguacate, 
Avocado,  or  Alligator  pear  (Persea  gratissima),  which  occurs  in 
many  varieties,  especially  in  tropical  America,  of  which  it  is  a 
native,  and  which  makes  an  excellent  salad  with  pepper  and 
vinegar.     Yet  another  very  good  fruit,  which  is  rather  sub- 
tropical than  tropical,  growing  best  at  high  elevation  above  the 
sea,  is  the  Passion  fruit  (Passiflora  edulis),  which  can  also  be 
cultivated  in  warm  temperate  climates.     The  fruits,  scraped  out 
into  a  tumbler  with  the  addition  of  a  pinch  of  bicarbonate  of 
soda  and  some  sugar,  make  a  most  refreshing  drink.     Another 
very  good  fruit  is  the  chiku  or  sapodilla  (Achras  Sapota),  and 
others  worthy  of  mention  are  the  guava  (Psidium  Guava),  the 
rozelle  (Hibiscus  Sabdari/a,  used  in  jellies,  etc.),  the  jambu 
(species  of  Eugenia),  the  mountain  papaw  (Carica  candamar- 
censis),  and  the  tree  tomato  (Gyphomandra  betacea).     And  of 


CH.  VII]  FRUITS   AND    VEGETABLES  95 

nuts  may  be  specially  mentioned  the  cashew  (Anacardium 
occidentale),  which  when  roasted  is  perhaps  the  best  of  all  nuts. 
It  is  often  known  in  the  east  as  the  coffin  nail  or  promotion 
nut,  but  there  is  no  reason  to  suppose  that  it  is  specially  indi- 
gestible unless  eaten  in  large  quantity. 

Another  fruit  which  is  of  importance,  and  requires  a  para- 
graph to  itself,  is  the  papaw  (Carica  Papaya),  which  bears  a 
large  fruit  not  unlike  a  melon,  but  with  a  peculiar  and  not  un- 
pleasant flavour  of  its  own.  It  is  one  of  the  great  staples  of 
native  mixed  cultivation  in  the  tropics.  The  leaves  and  the 
unripe  fruits  of  this  plant  contain  a  milky  juice,  in  which  is  the 
ferment  papain.  Meat  wrapped  in  a  leaf  and  buried  becomes 
partly  digested  and  much  more  tender,  and  of  recent  years,  the 
ferment  has  come  a  good  deal  into  use  in  the  north  for  people  of 
weak  digestion.  It  is  obtained  by  bleeding  the  unripe  fruits, 
and  purifying  the  product.  Until  lately,  the  trade  was  mainly 
in  the  hands  of  the  peasantry  of  the  West  Indian  island  of 
Montserrat,  and  the  capture  of  it  by  Ceylon,  where  it  is  a  mere 
bagatelle,  will  likely  involve  them  in  some  suffering.  This 
phenomenon  again  illustrates  the  advantage  possessed  by  a 
country  with  cheap  labour  and  European  supervision  over  one 
in  which  an  industry  is  merely  in  the  hands  of  the  peasants. 

Vegetables.  Speaking  generally  the  tropics  are  poor  in 
really  good  vegetables,  the  best  available,  from  the  European 
point  of  view,  being  the  actual  European  vegetables  grown  at 
high  levels  in  the  mountains  or  imported  from  Europe,  America, 
or  Australia.  Thus,  near  Nuwara  Eliya  in  Ceylon,  at  6200  feet 
above  the  sea,  the  cabbage,  cauliflower,  carrot,  turnip,  potato, 
celery,  lettuce,  leek,  parsley,  and  other  vegetables  are  commonly 
cultivated  by  market  gardeners  and  sent  down  to  the  low  levels 
by  the  night  mail  trains.  It  is  true  that  these  vegetables  can 
be  grown  at  lower  levels,  but  their  cultivation  takes  much  more 
care  and  trouble,  and  cannot  be  commercially  carried  on. 

A  very  great  variety  of  vegetables  is  grown  by  the  in- 
habitants of  tropical  countries,  e.g.  the  yams,  etc.,  described  in 
Chapter  I,  and  other  tubers,  such  as  those  of  Canna,  Tacca, 
Curcuma,  etc. ;  pulses  such  as  Phaseolus  lunatus  and  other 


96  AGRICULTURE   IN  THE  TROPICS  [PT.  II 

species,  Dolichos  Lablab,  Lens  esculenta,  the  lentil,  Arachis 
hypogaea,  the  ground-nut,  and  many  more ;  gourds  and  pump- 
kins of  all  kinds;  onions,  beet,  radish,  cabbage  and  other 
"  European  "  vegetables  ;  and  many  spicily  flavoured  "  curry- 
stuffs."  It  would  lead  too  far  to  enter  into  details  about  all 
these. 

The  most  striking  instance  of  vegetable  production  is 
probably  to  be  seen  in  Java,  where  the  rice  fields  are 
cultivated  in  vegetables  after  the  rice  crop  is  reaped,  and 
where  vegetables  are  good,  cheap  and  abundant. 

In  general  native  vegetables  are  poor  of  their  kind,  probably 
owing  to  the  crossing  with  poor  sorts  that  continually  goes  on. 

There  are  several  quite  good  kinds  of  tropical  vegetables 
cultivated  in  the  lower  levels,  but  the  ingrained  conservatism  of 
the  European  residents  in  the  tropics  prevents  their  cordial 
acceptance.  Such  for  instance  are  the  sweet  potato,  the  various 
beans,  pumpkins,  gourds,  yams  (many  of  which  are  really 
excellent  if  properly  cooked),  onions,  egg-fruits  or  brinjals, 
okras  or  bandakais,  etc.  It  is  true  that  none  of  these,  except 
the  sweet  potato,  the  brinjal,  the  onion,  and  perhaps  some  of 
the  yams,  are  quite  up  to  the  ordinary  European  standard,  but 
much  more  might  be  made  of  them  than  is  made,  especially 
if  better  methods  of  cooking  them  were  devised. 

There  is  a  great  want,  from  the  point  of  view  of  the 
European  residents  in  the  tropics,  of  good  and  varied  vegetables 
for  eating.  People  constantly  ask,  in  all  eastern  countries  at 
any  rate,  why  this  demand  is  not  supplied,  and  blame  the 
native  for  not  being  sufficiently  awake  to  his  own  interests  to 
supply  it.  In  actual  fact,  however,  the  small  European  popu- 
lation creates  but  a  very  small  demand,  and  it  is  rare  to  find 
Europeans  who  are  willing  to  pay  a  higher  price  for  a  better 
article.  The  cultivator  who  starts  to  grow  fancy  fruits  or 
vegetables  for  the  local  markets  takes  considerable  risks.  On 
the  other  hand,  a  good  many  Europeans  are  willing  to  go  to 
some  expense  and  trouble  to  grow  such  things  in  their  own 
gardens.  At  high  elevations,  seeds  of  the  best  kinds  of  vege- 
tables can  be  imported  every  year  from  Europe,  and  cultivated 
with  success,  but  this  is  rarely  the  case  in  the  low  country.  If 


CH.  VII]  FRUITS   AND   VEGETABLES  97 

the  right  time  of  year  be  chosen  for  sowing,  a  surprising  number 
of  European  vegetables  will  give  a  fair  crop  there,  but  for  all 
the  year  round  supplies  reliance  must  necessarily  be  placed 
upon  the  native  vegetables.  Hence  the  obvious  policy  to 
pursue  is  to  improve  these.  Hitherto  the  usual  way  in  which 
this  has  been  attempted  has  been  to  introduce  other  varieties 
from  abroad,  but  in  general  there  is  but  little  to  choose  between 
the  varieties  from  different  tropical  countries  if  the  differences 
in  methods  of  cultivation  and  effects  of  soil  be  left  out  of 
account,  while  varieties  of  tropical  or  subtropical  vegetables 
soon  deteriorate  in  the  hot  climate,  if  introduced  from  colder 
countries.  Furthermore,  it  is  obvious  that  there  are  very  well 
marked  limits  to  this  kind  of  work ;  every  variety  from  every 
tropical  country  may  soon  be  introduced  into  any  given  country, 
and  then  the  work  must  come  to  an  end.  What  is  wanted  is 
systematic  selection  and  improvement,  a  work  of  time,  trouble 
and  expense,  but  the  only  way  in  which  good  results  can  be 
obtained,  and  good  and  suitable  varieties  produced.  A  vast 
difference  would  be  apparent  in  the  quality  of  tropical  produce 
if  careful  selection  of  seed  were  attended  to.  The  European 
seedsman  keeps  up  the  qualities  of  his  varieties  by  careful 
selection,  while  the  same  varieties  in  the  hands  of  his  customers 
deteriorate  in  every  generation.  Local  races  should  be  improved 
by  selection,  by  scientific  crossing  with  imported  races  possessing 
desirable  characters,  and  by  careful  attention  to  good  cultivation. 
Even  wild  edible  plants  and  fruits,  so  often  contemned  as 
"jungle  stuff,"  may  in  this  way  become  valuable  products.  In 
Ceylon,  a  few  years  ago,  Mr  R  H.  Lock,  by  careful  crossing  with 
the  European  pea,  so  much  improved  the  native  pea  that  it 
was  almost  a  new  vegetable. 


98  [PT.  II 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

TOBACCO,    OPIUM,    HEMP. 

Tobacco.  The  tobacco  plant  (Nicotiana  Tabacum  and 
other  species),  a  native  of  warmer  America,  is  now  one  of  the 
most  widely  cultivated  plants  in  the  world,  for,  being  only  of 
short  duration,  it  can  be  grown  in  the  summer  season  of  the 
temperate  zones,  and  is  as  a  matter  of  fact  very  largely  culti- 
vated in  the  eastern  United  States,  Egypt,  Persia,  etc.  The 
most  prosperous  tobacco-growing  countries  are  however  prob- 
ably Sumatra  and  Cuba,  while  large  quantities  are  also  grown 
in  Borneo,  Java,  the  Philippine  Islands,  South  India,  Ceylon, 
and  other  places.  Tobaccos  for  cigars,  for  pipe-smoking,  for 
cigarettes,  and  for  chewing,  are  grown  in  different  localities, 
some  suiting  one  kind  better,  some  another. 

The  custom  of  smoking  was  first  noticed  by  Columbus,  and 
was  introduced  into  Spain  by  the  early  explorers.  A  hundred 
years  later  it  was  brought  to  England  by  Sir  Walter  Raleigh, 
and,  though  at  first  it  excited  alarm,  it  was  not  long  before  the 
habit  spread.  The  great  plague  gave  a  considerable  impetus  to 
smoking,  smokers  being  supposed  to  be  immune.  After  this 
began  the  period  of  repression,  when  great  efforts  were  made  to 
put  down  the  habit  by  penal  laws  and  severe  punishments,  in 
Russia  people  being  even  knouted  for  the  offence  of  smoking. 
But  all  was  in  vain,  and  the  habit  continually  spread,  until  now 
it  is  almost  universal. 

Tobacco  is  grown  from  seed,  and  planted  out  from  nurseries 
upon  rich,  light  soils,  in  which  there  must  be  plenty  of  lime, 
potash  and  decaying  organic  matter.  In  Sumatra  the  custom 


XIV  (a).     A  Tobacco  Field  in  Sumatra 


XIV  (b).      Fermenting  Tobacco  in  Sumatra 


CH.  VIII]  TOBACCO,   OPIUM,   HEMP  99 

at  one  time  was  to  fell  fresh  forest  for  each  crop,  but  now  it  is 
found  that  8 — 10  years  lying  fallow  will  render  the  ground 
suitable  once  more,  and  an  estate  is  made  of  about  8 — 10  times 
the  area  cultivated  in  any  one  year.  The  rows  are  about 
three  feet  apart,  and  the  plants  are  separated  by  about  18 
inches  in  the  rows.  When,  in  a  few  months,  the  flower  buds 
begin  to  appear  at  the  top  of  the  stems,  they  are  nipped  off,  so 
as  to  leave  the  plant  with  from  10  to  15  leaves;  lateral 
flower  buds  appear  soon  after,  and  must  be  similarly  treated. 
In  three  months  or  so  the  leaves  are  ripe,  and  they  are  then 
treated  in  different  ways  in  different  countries.  One  of  the 
best  ways  of  treatment  is  that  adopted  in  the  West  Indies. 
The  plants  are  cut  down  and  allowed  to  wither  for  a  short  time, 
and  are  then  carried  to  the  drying  house,  where  they  are  cut 
up  into  short  lengths,  each  length  having  one  pair  of  leaves. 
These  are  hung  on  sticks  and  placed  in  the  sun  to  wither,  and 
are  then  hung  in  the  drying  house  for  three  days,  with  the 
leaves  touching  one  another,  and  then  hung  more  widely  apart. 
When  the  midribs  are  perfectly  dry,  say  in  30  days,  the  leaves 
are  cut  off  from  the  stalks,  and  packed  in  large  heaps,  several 
feet  in  depth,  to  ferment,  and  changed  in  position  in  the  heap 
every  day  or  two.  After  thirty  or  forty  days,  all  the  heat  will 
have  gone,  and  the  leaves  will  now  be  cured  and  ready  for 
export. 

In  Sumatra  much  the  same  plan  is  followed.  The  leaves 
are  cut  at  about  1  p.m.,  when  they  are  dry  and  supple.  They 
are  dried  for  20 — 30  days,  and  then  sorted  into  bundles  of 
different  qualities  and  fermented.  Bamboos  are  put  into  the 
fermentation  heaps  and  by  the  aid  of  thermometers  placed  in 
them  the  fermentation  is  regulated. 

Of  late  years  some  successful  work  has  been  done,  especially 
in  temperate-zone  countries,  in  growing  tobacco  under  shade,  it 
being  grown  in  light  sheds  roofed  with  cheese-cloth.  By  this 
means  larger  plants  are  produced,  there  is  less  damage  by 
insects,  etc.,  and  a  fine  quality  of  wrapper  leaf  is  obtained. 

Great  efforts  are  constantly  being  made  to  introduce  the 
cultivation  of  tobacco,  which  on  the  whole  is  one  of  the  most 
profitable  in  the  tropics,  though  somewhat  risky,  into  new 

7—2 


100  AGRICULTURE   IN   THE  TROPICS  [PT.  II 

countries,  but  there  are  many  difficulties.  The  soil  is  often 
unsuitable  through  containing  too  little  lime  or  potash  or 
for  other  reasons,  or  the  plants  may  not  grow  well  through 
being  in  a  somewhat  unsuitable  climate.  To  get  enough  leaf 
to  cure  properly,  a  comparatively  large  area  has  to  be  grown  in 
tobacco,  say  50  acres,  and  the  curing  is  a  matter  requiring 
considerable  experience  and  skill. 

In  northern  Ceylon  there  is  a  considerable  industry  in  pre- 
paring tobacco,  not  for  the  European  or  American  market,  to 
which  the  tobacco  of  most  countries  goes,  but  for  South  India, 
where  the  preference  is  for  a  coarse  rank  tobacco.  Many  thou- 
sands of  acres  are  given  up  to  this  crop  in  the  extreme  north 
of  Ceylon.  As  a  rule,  each  villager  only  grows  a  very  small 
area.  The  tobacco  grown  has  extremely  large  leaves,  and  is 
very  rapidly  cured,  so  as  to  form  a  rank  and  heavy  brand,  which 
can  rarely  be  smoked  with  pleasure  by  any  white  man.  The 
trade  in  this  tobacco  is,  however,  fairly  profitable.  Attempts 
have  at  different  times  been  made  to  get  a  tobacco  from  Ceylon 
suitable  for  the  European  market,  but  the  difficulties  are  many, 
not  the  least  being  that  the  villagers  grow  areas  too  small  to 
give  enough  tobacco  for  a  proper  cure,  and  consequently  anyone 
trying  to  cure  properly  would  have  to  buy  the  tobacco  from  a 
large  number  of  villagers. 

Opium.  The  cultivation  of  the  opium  poppy  (Papaver 
somniferum)  is  largely  engaged  in  in  Bengal,  and  a  small  amount 
is  cultivated  in  other  parts  of  India.  The  object  of  its  cultiva- 
tion is  mainly  for  export  to  China,  where  the  drug  is  largely 
smoked.  Opium,  whose  effect  depends  on  the  presence  of 
morphine  and  other  alkaloids,  is  one  of  the  most  useful  but,  at 
the  same  time,  most  dangerous  drugs,  and  the  habit  of  opium 
smoking,  which  produces  very  pleasant  dreamy  sensations,  is 
one  that  rapidly  grows  upon  its  victims.  Opium  was  the 
primary  cause  of  the  China  war  of  1860,  a  Chinese  customs 
official,  anxious  to  prevent  its  importation  into  that  country, 
having  destroyed  about  £2,000,000  worth  of  it  on  landing. 

The  cultivated  opium  poppy  is  apparently  a  form  of  Papaver 
setigerum,  a  Mediterranean  species,  and  the  finest  opium  for 


XV.     Cinchona  succirubra  in  Java;   30  years  old 
(Original  in  possession  of  the  Kolonial  Wirthschaftliche  Komitee,  Berlin) 


CH.  VIIl]  TOBACCO,   OPIUM,   HEMP  101 

medicinal  purposes  comes  to  this  day  from  Asia  Minor,  but  in 
India  there  are  perhaps  about  1,000,000  acres  under  opium, 
half  of  that  area  being  in  Bengal,  the  other  Indian  districts 
growing  it  mainly  for  local  use.  The  annual  export  from 
Bengal  is  about  7,500,000  Ibs. 

Seed  is  distributed  by  the  Government  Opium  Department; 
the  plant  comes  into  flower  about  three  months  after  sowing, 
and  the  petals  are  removed  when  fully  matured,  and  kept  to 
form  the  packing  round  the  opium.  The  seed-capsule  is  ready 
for  treatment  in  about  another  ten  days,  and  is  lanced  with  a 
series  of  parallel  knives  about  1/30  of  an  inch  apart.  The  opium 
which  runs  out — the  milk  of  the  plant — is  collected  next  day 
with  a  kind  of  scoop,  and  sold  to  the  Government,  in  whose 
opium  factories  it  is  then  made  up  into  cakes  of  about  21  Ibs., 
wrapped  in  a  thick  coating  of  the  petals  of  the  flowers. 

Hemp.  It  is  best  to  consider  this  plant  along  with  opium, 
for  in  the  tropics  it  only  yields  the  drug,  whereas  in  temperate 
climates  it  gives  a  very  excellent  fibre,  but  no  drug.  The  plant 
(Cannabis  sativa)  is  a  native  of  the  northern  tropics  and  the 
subtropics  of  Asia,  and  is  largely  cultivated  in  India  for  the 
drug,  and  in  southern  Europe,  China,  etc.  for  the  fibre.  It  is 
especially  cultivated  in  Bengal,  and  the  area  devoted  to  it  is 
very  large. 

In  Bengal  nurseries  are  prepared  in  May,  the  plants  are 
sown  in  August,  and  planted  out  in  September,  six  or  eight 
inches  apart.  They  mature  from  January  onwards.  The  male 
flowers  are  removed  in  November,  for,  if  the  female  flowers  are 
fertilised,  there  is  no  formation  of  the  drug. 

The  drug  is  a  resinous  exudation  found  upon  almost  all 
parts  of  the  plant,  and  is  marketed  in  three  forms,  ganja, 
charas,  and  bhang,  the  resins  of  the  flowers,  the  young  shoots, 
and  the  mature  leaves  respectively.  Ganja  is  prepared  from 
the  flowering  shoots  (female)  by  packing  them  together  and 
tramping  them  down.  Charas  is  prepared  in  climates  further 
north  than  ganja,  and  the  flowering  twigs  are  beaten  over  a 
cloth,  when  the  resin  drops  off  as  a  fine  powder.  Bhang  con- 
sists of  the  actual  mature  leaves,  mainly  gathered  from  the  wild 


102  AGRICULTURE    IN   THE   TROPICS  [PT.  II 

plants,  and  is  used  in  the  preparation  of  the  intoxicating  drink 
hashish,  or  in  the  making  of  sweetmeats.  The  handling  of 
bhang  is  therefore  very  difficult  to  regulate,  whereas  that  of 
ganja  or  charas,  which  are  made  from  the  cultivated  plant,  is 
subject  to  strict  laws,  and  no  one  is  allowed  to  sell  without  a 
license.  The  general  action  of  the  drug  is  not  unlike  that  of 
opium. 


103 


CHAPTER   IX. 

CINCHONA   AND   OTHER   DRUGS. 

Cinchona.  The  Cinchona  tree  (Cinchona  succirubra,  offici- 
nalis,  Ledgeriana,  and  other  species),  whose  bark,  often  known 
to  this  day  as  Peruvian  bark,  yields  the  drug  quinine,  besides 
the  other  less  valuable  alkaloids  cinchonidine,  etc.,  is  a  native 
of  the  Andes  of  Peru.  The  drug,  in  the  form  of  the  powdered 
bark,  was  first  introduced  to  Europe  in  the  sixteenth  century 
by  the  Jesuits,  and  its  value  became  well  known  when  in  1638 
the  Countess  of  Chinchon  was  cured  of  a  fever  by  its  aid. 

For  a  very  long  time  the  drug  was  entirely  obtained  from 
the  wild  trees  in  Peru,  which  were  felled  and  their  bark  re- 
moved, but  about  1860  it  was  realised  that  these  wild  trees 
were  getting  into  serious  danger  of  extermination,  and  an 
expedition,  headed  by  Mr  (now  Sir)  Clements  Markham,  was 
sent  to  Peru,  and  after  toilsome  and  often  dangerous  journeying, 
secured  a  large  supply  of  young  plants  and  seed,  which  was 
successfully  introduced  into  India  and  Ceylon.  Quinine  at  that 
time  was  worth  about  twelve  shillings  an  ounce,  and  the  history 
of  its  cheapening  to  one  shilling  must  be  mainly  credited  to 
Ceylon. 

The  tree  was  cultivated  for  many  years  at  Hakgala,  the 
Government  mountain  garden  in  Ceylon,  at  a  height  of  about 
5600  feet  above  the  sea  level,  but  in  the  days  when  coffee  was 
prosperous  no  one  could  be  persuaded  to  have  anything  to  do 
with  the  plants,  and  it  was  only  after  about  ten  years,  as  coffee 
began  to  be  depressed  by  the  attacks  of  the  leaf  disease,  that 
anyone  was  induced  to  plant  them,  although  at  first  they  were 


104  AGRICULTURE   IN   THE  TROPICS  [PT.  II 

given  away.  Later,  as  the  collapse  of  coffee  began  to  drive  the 
planters  to  look  out  for  something  else,  cinchona  was  tried, 
cautiously  at  first,  but  with  a  rush  so  soon  as  the  profits  realised 
by  the  first  planters  became  known.  A  large  area  was  rapidly 
covered  with  the  tree,  and  prices  of  quinine  fell  rapidly,  till  at 
last  they  reached  one  shilling  an  ounce.  The  figures  of  export 
from  Ceylon,  with  the  average  prices  of  quinine,  may  be  quoted 
here,  as  they  show  what  went  on  better  than  any  description : 

Export  of  bark  Price  of  Quinine  an  ounce 

1875  19,152  Ibs.  6s.  9d. 

1880          1,208,000  12s.  Od. 

1885  11,678,000  2s.  3d. 

1886  15,365,000  (maximum) 

1890  8,729,000  Is.  Id. 

1895  920,000  Is.  Id. 

1900  591,000  Is.  Id. 

1905  171,485  Is.  Id. 

The  reduction  of  the  price  to  such  an  enormous  extent 
made  the  cultivation  in  Ceylon  unprofitable,  and  it  was  rapidly 
given  up,  the  more  so  as  tea  was  at  the  same  time  coming  in, 
and  proving  to  be  very  remunerative.  At  the  present  time, 
there  is  but  little  cinchona  cultivated  in  Ceylon,  probably  about 
450  acres  in  all. 

In  India  the  cultivation  was  but  little  taken  up  by  private 
individuals,  but  was  largely  gone  in  for  by  the  Government, 
especially  in  the  Nilgiri  Mountains  in  Madras,  and  in  the 
Himalaya  near  Darjeeling.  The  Indian  Government  has  not 
entered  the  open  market  as  a  competitor,  but  manufactures  its 
own  quinine  for  sale  to  the  people  of  India,  who  by  an  admirable 
arrangement  introduced  by  Sir  George  King,  lately  Superin- 
tendent of  the  Calcutta  Botanic  Gardens,  are  enabled  to  buy 
packets  containing  one  dose  of  7  grains  at  the  price  of  one  pice 
(i.e.  one  farthing)  at  any  post  office  in  India.  This  has  done  a 
great  deal  against  that  scourge  of  the  poorer  people  of  India, 
malaria. 

At  the  same  time  that  Ceylon  was  giving  up  cinchona, 
Java  was  taking  it  up,  in  the  slow  but  persistent  way  that 
characterises  the  Dutch  planters,  and  at  the  same  time,  by 


CH.  IX]  CINCHONA   AND   OTHER   DRUGS  105 

the  aid  of  science,  taking  steps  to  improve  the  yield  of  the 
alkaloids  in  the  bark  by  a  careful  selection.  This  selection  has 
gone  on  for  a  great  many  years,  and  the  result  has  been  that 
the  best  Java  barks  of  Cinchona  Ledgeriana  now  contain  as 
much  as  15 — 17  per  cent,  of  their  weight  of  the  drug,  while 
the  Ceylon  barks  rarely  exceed  8  per  cent.  This  of  course 
means  that  a  far  less  quantity  of  the  heavy  bark  has  to  be 
grown  and  sent  to  Europe  to  obtain  the  same  monetary  return, 
and  consequently  nowadays  Java  has  a  practical  monopoly  of 
the  cinchona  market,  from  which  there  seems  little  likelihood 
of  ousting  her,  though  it  must  be  pointed  out  that  the  profits 
in  this  cultivation  are  now  but  small,  even  in  Java. 

The  plant  is  grown  from  seeds,  and  forms  a  small  tree 
which  grows  best  in  the  mountains  of  the  tropics  at  elevations 
of  4000  feet  or  more,  in  wet  districts.  The  plants  are  usually 
put  out  at  distances  of  three  or  four  feet,  and  after  three  or 
four  years  are  thinned  out.  The  most  usual  ways  of  obtaining 
the  bark  are  coppicing  and  shaving.  In  the  former  case  the 
trees  are  cut  down,  and  the  stocks  are  allowed  to  grow  up 
again.  In  the  latter  case  the  bark  is  shaved  with  a  spokeshave 
nearly,  but  not  quite,  down  to  the  cambium.  If  the  latter  be 
not  injured,  the  bark  will  quickly  grow  again.  It  is  sometimes 
tied  up  in  moss  to  encourage  renewal. 

The  most  promising  directions  in  which  improvement  may 
be  looked  for  in  cinchona  cultivation  are  in  the  continual  im- 
provement of  the  barks  by  selection  of  the  richest  in  each 
generation,  in  green  manuring,  and  in  grafting  the  less  hardy 
species,  which  also  happen  to  be  the  richer  in  alkaloid,  upon 
the  more  hardy,  such  as  Cinchona  succirubra.  This  is  now 
largely  done  in  Java,  with  very  good  results. 

Coca.  This  plant  (Erythroxylon  Coca)  is  also  a  native  of 
the  Andes,  and  the  Indians  use  the  leaves  largely  as  a  masti- 
catory, the  chewing  of  coca  leaves  enabling  them  to  resist 
fatigue.  In  recent  years  the  plant  has  also  come  into  use 
in  Europe  and  America,  the  drug  cocaine,  obtained  from  the 
leaves,  proving  to  be  a  most  valuable  local  anaesthetic.  It  has 
also  powerful  stimulating  properties,  and  the  "  cocaine  habit," 


106  AGRICULTURE  IN   THE  TROPICS  [PT.  II 

whether  in  the  direction  of  drinking  wines  medicated  with 
cocaine,  or  in  other  ways  consuming  the  drug,  has  assumed 
considerable  proportions.  Until  lately  obtained  entirely  from 
the  wild  plants  of  Peru,  etc.,  the  drug  is  now  largely  got  from 
the  cultivated  plants  of  Ceylon,  Java  and  elsewhere.  The 
plant  in  cultivation  forms  a  small  bush,  not  unlike  tea,  and 
the  mature  (not  the  young)  leaves  are  picked  and  dried,  and 
exported.  The  Ceylon  leaf  is  now  practically  the  standard  of 
the  market. 

Ipecacuanha.  This  plant  (Cephaelis  Ipecacuanha)  is  a 
little  herbaceous  plant  grown  in  Brazil,  the  Federated  Malay 
States,  and  elsewhere.  The  roots  form  the  drug,  and  are  like 
rows  of  beads. 

Jalap.  The  jalap  plant  (Ipomoea  pur  go)  is  a  native  of 
Mexico,  occurring  especially  near  the  town  of  Xalapa,  from 
which  it  takes  its  name.  The  plant  is  a  small  climber,  with 
large  tuberous  roots,  which  when  rooted  up  and  dried  form  the 
drug. 

Cubebs.  The  cubeb  plant  (Piper  Gubeba)  is  a  native  of 
Java,  and  is  grown  very  like  ordinary  pepper.  The  dried  fruits 
form  the  drug. 

Sarsaparilla.  Smilax  officinalis  and  other  species  of 
Smilax  are  natives  of  Central  America,  and  are  cultivated 
to  some  extent  in  Jamaica.  They  are  slender  climbers,  and 
the  drug  consists  of  the  cord-like  roots. 

Castor-oil.  This  is  extracted  from  the  seeds  of  Ricinus 
communis,  a  native  of  the  eastern  tropics,  and  cultivated  to 
some  extent  in  India  and  elsewhere.  It  forms  a  very  common 
weed  in  Ceylon,  the  West  Indies,  and  other  countries.  Its 
cultivation  is  very  easy,  but  unremunerative,  experiments  in 
Ceylon  having  shown  that  only  about  4  to  5  cwts.  of  seed  per 
acre  can  be  looked  for,  the  seed  being  worth  only  a  few  rupees 
a  hundredweight. 


107 


CHAPTER   X. 

FIBRE-YIELDING   PLANTS. 

Cotton.  So  far  as  the  tropics  are  concerned,  this  cultiva- 
tion is  mainly  restricted  to  India,  in  which  country  it  is  a  great 
staple,  and  the  West  Indies  and  West  Africa,  in  which  coun- 
tries, thanks  largely  to  the  efforts  of  the  British  Cotton-growing 
Association,  ably  seconded  by  those  of  the  Imperial  Department 
of  Agriculture  for  the  West  Indies,  it  is  now  assuming  consider- 
able importance.  There  is  also  reason  to  believe  that  Ceylon 
can  grow  the  Sea  Island  cottoD,  which  has  been  so  successful 
in  the  West  Indies,  and  which,  outside  of  them,  has  as  yet  only 
proved  to  be  cultivable  in  the  Sea  Islands  of  South  Carolina. 

Cotton  has  been  cultivated  in  India  from  pre-historic  times, 
and  at  one  time  Indian  manufactured  cotton  goods  were  mainly 
used  in  Europe.  When  America  was  discovered,  the  Mexicans 
and  Peruvians  were  found  to  be  using  their  native  cottons,  but 
this  industry  died  out  under  the  Spanish  conquests.  Later  on, 
cotton  cultivation  was  begun  in  the  southern  United  States, 
and  by  the  end  of  the  18th  century  there  was  a  considerable 
export  to  Great  Britain.  By  1860,  with  the  continual  improve- 
ment that  was  going  on  in  length  of  fibre  and  other  qualities, 
the  supremacy  of  American  cotton  upon  the  market  was 
assured.  Then  followed  the  Civil  War,  which  for  the  time  cut 
off  American  supplies,  and  the  Indian  cotton,  hitherto  only 
received  to  the  extent  of  about  400,000  bales  annually,  was 
sent  to  England  at  the  rate  of  about  1,500,000  bales  a  year. 
With  the  better  prices,  India  unfortunately  took  to  adulteration 


108  AGRICULTURE   IN   THE   TROPICS  [PT.  II 

and  after  the  close  of  the  war,  America  rapidly  regained  her 
premier  position,  arid  Indian  cotton  sank  to  the  bottom  of  the 
market  grades. 

The  cotton  earliest  cultivated  in  India  would  appear  to 
have  been  a  tree  cotton,  probably  Gossypium  arboreum.  At 
the  present  time,  although  it  occurs  almost  everywhere  in 
single  specimens,  and  its  fibre  is  used  for  making  the  sacred 
string  of  the  Brahmin  and  the  wicks  of  temple  lamps,  this 
species  is  not  cultivated;  the  forms  of  cotton — all  annual — 
grown  in  India  are  referred  by  Watt1  to  G.  Nanking,  G.  obtusi- 
folium,  and  others.  The  Levant  cotton,  according  to  the  same 
authority,  is  G.  herbaceum,  and  this,  with  G.  hirsutum,  and 
especially  G.  meocicanum,  and  perhaps  others,  are  cultivated  in 
the  United  States,  while  G.  peruvianum  is  grown  in  Peru, 
Egypt,  etc.  All  these  are  cottons  with  a  closely  adherent 
"  fuzz "  on  the  seed,  while  G.  barbadense,  the  parent  of  the 
Sea  Island  cotton,  and  others,  have  none,  the  fibre  or  lint 
coming  clean  off,  and  leaving  a  naked  seed. 

While  at  first  it  was  the  perennial  species  of  cotton  that 
were  cultivated — indeed  no  wild  annual  species  is  known — the 
growth  of  cotton  as  an  annual,  yielding  its  crop  in  the  same 
year  in  which  it  is  sown,  and  much  less  liable  to  disease  (owing 
to  the  periods  of  fallow),  has  steadily  come  in,  and  now  it  is  but 
rare  for  a  tree  cotton  to  be  cultivated.  At  the  same  time,  the 
growth  of  the  annual  forms  allowed  of  a  considerable  extension 
northwards  and  southwards  of  the  cotton  growing  area. 

India  has  about  10 — 12  million  acres  within  the  tropics 
devoted  to  the  growth  of  cotton,  but  the  yield  is  very  poor, 
amounting  only  to  about  7  million  cwt.  Indian  cotton  appears 
on  the  market  under  many  names,  such  as  Oomrawuttee  or 
Hingunghat,  Broach,  Bengal,  Dhollerah,  Surat,  Tinnevelli, 
Westerns,  etc. 

There  are  many  mills  for  the  spinning  and  weaving  of 
cotton  in  India,  especially  in  Bombay,  and  these  take  more  and 

1  The  wild  and  cultivated  Cotton  Plants  of  the  World.  London,  1907.  It  is 
right,  however,  to  point  out  that  many  good  authorities  object  to  Sir  George 
Watt's  conclusions,  and  that  recent  experiments  in  Mendelian  breeding  are  also 
opposed  to  them. 


CH.  X]  FIBRE- YIELDING    PLANTS  109 

more  of  the  local  product.  As  these  mills  do  not  want  a  long, 
but  simply  a  short  and  uniform  staple,  the  process  of  improve- 
ment of  the  quality  of  Indian  cottons  is  naturally  handicapped. 
What  is  most  wanted  at  present  would  seem  to  be  a  larger 
yield,  for  the  production  is  extremely  small. 

In  the  18th  century  cotton  was  often  grown  under  irrigation 
in  India,  but  during  more  recent  times  it  has  commonly  been 
cultivated  on  lands  of  good  water-retaining  capacity.  The 
most  marked  of  these  is  the  "  black  cotton  soil "  common  in 
Madras,  Berar,  etc.  This  is  a  heavy  black  alluvial  soil,  rather 
clayey,  which  cracks,  but  does  not  disintegrate,  under  a  hot 
sun,  and  retains  water  exceedingly  well.  Experiments  in 
Ceylon  with  similar  soils  tend  to  show  that  this  black  soil 
offers  no  special  advantages  other  than  this  capacity  of  holding 
water,  a  capacity  which  must  be  of  great  value  under  an  Indian 
sun. 

The  cotton  crop  in  India  is  commonly  rotated  with  others ; 
e.g.  in  Berar  a  common  sequence  is  wheat,  peas,  cotton,  linseed, 
jowari.  It  is  also  not  infrequently  sown  with  a  small  admixture 
of  some  leguminous  crop. 

Indian  cotton,  speaking  generally,  is  about  the  poorest  and 
dirtiest,  and  gives  the  worst  yield,  of  any  in  the  world,  and  no 
one  who  has  seen  the  cotton  districts  of  India  can  wonder  at 
this.  It  is  a  small,  low-growing  plant,  usually  not  over  three 
feet  high.  In  some  parts  of  India  it  is  sown  broadcast,  in 
others  planted  with  a  drill,  at  intervals  of  1'  6"  to  3'  apart,  and 
the  crop  is  put  out  every  year  at  the  beginning  of  the  rainy 
season.  It  is  kept  weeded,  but  otherwise  left  to  take  care  of 
itself,  and  in  a  few  months  it  comes  into  flower,  the  flowers 
being  succeeded  by  the  pods,  or  bolls,  as  they  are  usually  termed. 
From  these,  when  they  burst,  the  cotton  is  picked,  spread  out 
to  dry,  and  finally  ginned.  Formerly  it  was  largely  ginned  by 
the  aid  of  small  and  very  primitive  hand-gins,  but  now  it  is 
often  ginned  at  special  factories,  established  by  European  firms 
throughout  the  cotton  districts. 

Two  kinds  of  gin  are  generally  employed,  the  saw  gin  and 
the  roller  gin.  In  the  former  the  cotton  is  fed  against  a  grating 
of  fine  mesh  work,  behind  which  is  a  revolving  drum  covered 


110  AGRICULTURE   IN   THE   TROPICS  [PT.  II 

with  small  projecting  teeth,  which  tear  off  the  cotton  from  the 
seeds,  the  latter  being  left  behind  the  mesh  work.  The  roller 
gin  has  the  cotton  fed  between  two  roughened  rollers,  which  are 
so  closely  placed  together  that  the  seed  is  left  behind,  while 
the  lint  or  wool  is  drawn  through.  The  latter  type  of  gin  gives 
very  much  better  results,  tearing  the  lint  much  less,  but  is 
more  expensive  to  work ;  it  is  the  only  type  of  gin  that  can  be 
employed  for  cotton  with  long  fibres — or  long-stapled  cotton  as 
it  is  technically  called. 

From  the  gin  the  cotton  goes  to  the  baling  press,  which 
compresses  it  enormously,  into  bales  of  about  500  Ibs.  each, 
which  are  then  shipped  to  Japan — which  country  takes  more 
and  more  of  the  short-stapled  Indian  cotton — or  to  Europe. 

The  yield  of  Indian  cotton  is  astonishingly  small,  the  quality 
is  very  poor,  and  it  is  commonly  more  or  less  dirty.  This  is 
due  in  part  to  the  carelessness  of  the  natives,  but  largely  to  the 
fact  that  the  money-lenders,  to  whom  the  villagers  usually 
mortgage  their  crops,  do  not  allow  them  to  pick  it  as  it  becomes 
ripe,  but  only  in  quantities  at  intervals,  and  thus  a  good  deal 
of  it  falls  upon  the  ground.  The  prices  obtained  are  as  a  rule 
only  about  3d.  or  4<d.  a  pound  while  the  yield  is  from  60  to 
120  Ibs.  an  acre.  Thus  the  financial  return  is  ridiculously 
small,  and  in  no  other  country  but  India  could  it  be  looked  on 
as  a  remunerative  crop.  The  peasant,  however,  putting  his 
own  and  his  family's  labour  into  the  work,  and  spending  com- 
paratively little  in  actual  money  upon  it,  regards  the  cotton 
crop,  in  many  districts,  as  his  great  financial  standby. 

At  one  time  Indian  cotton  held  sway  upon  the  market,  and 
there  were  also  special  manufactures  of  it,  as,  for  example,  into 
Dacca  muslin,  in  India  itself,  but  now  this  is  all  changed,  and 
the  cultivation  of  cotton  in  the  United  States  of  America  has 
revolutionised  the  world  in  this  matter,  and  there  seems  little 
prospect,  for  the  present,  of  America  being  ousted  by  India  from 
her  position  of  supremacy,  though  she  may  be  largely  ousted 
by  West  Africa. 

Much  effort  is  now  being  devoted,  by  the  new  departments 
of  agriculture  in  India,  to  getting  better  cottons  to  grow 
successfully  in  that  country.  Experiments  are  being  made  in 


CH.  X]  FIBRE- YIELDING   PLANTS  111 

two  directions,  in  the  trial  of  cottons  from  other  countries, 
and  in  the  breeding  of  new  varieties  of  longer-stapled  cotton 
suitable  to  India.  The  latter  efforts  must  of  course  take  a  long 
time,  but  in  the  meantime  the  Egyptian  cotton  grown  in  the 
Sind  district  of  Bombay  has  just  been  sold  in  Lancashire  at 
tyd.  a  pound,  a  very  good  figure. 

In  the  West  Indies,  on  the  other  hand,  it  has  been  found 
that  the  climate  and  soil  are  excellently  suited  to  the  growth 
of  the  Sea  Island  cotton,  Gossypium  barbadense,  which  indeed  is 
originally  a  native  of  the  islands,  but  which  has  for  a  great  many 
years  been  almost  solely  cultivated  upon  the  Sea  Islands  of  South 
Carolina.  By  careful  treatment  and  good  cultivation  this  crop 
yields  from  200  to  300  Ibs.  per  acre,  worth  from  Is.  to  Is.  6d. 
per  Ib.  so  that  the  maximum  return  per  acre  may  be  as  much  as 
£22.  10«.  Od.  against  about  £2  for  the  Indian,  a  vast  difference, 
and  one  sufficient  to  make  a  profitable  return  to  anyone  putting 
capital  into  the  cultivation.  Sea  Island  cotton  has  a  special 
market,  and  brings  the  highest  prices  of  any  cotton,  and  as  it 
has  as  yet  only  been  found  to  succeed  in  the  very  limited  area 
of  the  Sea  Islands  and  the  West  Indies,  there  seems  good 
reason  to  expect  that  the  prices  will  keep  at  a  high  level. 
This  kind  of  cotton  has  to  be  ginned  with  the  roller  gin,  and 
is  packed  in  bags  containing  about  400  Ibs. 

The  very  serious  rise  in  the  price  of  cotton,  some  years  ago, 
brought  considerable  trouble  to  Lancashire,  and  resulted  finally 
in  the  formation  of  a  British  Cotton-growing  Association,  whose 
avowed  object  was  to  encourage  the  growing  of  cotton  within 
the  British  Empire,  thus  rendering  Lancashire  comparatively 
independent  of  the  American  supply  and  of  the  ''manipula- 
tions" of  American  dealers.  The  consumption  of  cotton  in 
America  itself  is  also  growing  rapidly,  and  tending  to  reduce 
the  amount  available  for  Lancashire.  The  efforts  of  this  Asso- 
ciation have  on  the  whole,  considering  how  short  a  time  it  has 
been  in  existence,  been  wonderfully  successful.  Already  the 
West  Indies,  small  though  they  are,  have  become  an  important 
source  of  Sea  Island  and  other  cottons,  West  Africa  is  growing 
much  cotton,  and  experiments  have  been  successful  in  India 
and  Ceylon. 


112  AGRICULTURE  IN  THE  TROPICS  [PT.  II 

The  improvement  of  cotton  cultivation  in  the  tropics  is  a 
very  difficult  matter,  and  one  which  cannot  be  left  in  the  hands 
of  the  natives  there.  Indian  cotton  has  not,  so  far  as  one  can 
discover,  appreciably  deteriorated  in  the  last  fifty  years,  as  it 
is  practically  wild  cotton  of  several  species  and  hybrids,  yet, 
during  that  time  or  a  little  longer,  it  has  gone  from  near 
the  top  to  the  bottom  of  the  market  prices.  The  same  plant, 
taken  up  by  the  white  man,  with  careful  selection  of  seed,  has 
given  the  American  Upland  cottons,  which  now  form  the  bulk 
of  the  world's  supply.  Leave  the  native  of  the  tropics  to  him- 
self, and  he  will  never  select  his  seed,  and  without  that  the 
quality  must  remain  at  the  bottom.  Either  give  him  a  species 
of  cotton,  which  even  when  wild  is  better  than  his  own,  or  else 
arrange  for  Government  selection  of  seed.  This  may  be  done 
in  various  ways.  Probably  the  best  is  to  have  a  definite  seed 
farm,  on  which  the  selection  of  seed  can  be  rigidly  and  carefully 
attended  to,  while  at  the  same  time  definite  experiments  in 
hybridisation  on  Mendelian  principles  can  be  made ;  but  another 
way  sometimes  adopted  is  to  have  inspectors  who  shall  go  round 
the  fields  of  the  actual  cultivators,  and  mark  the  best  stocks  for 
seed,  the  seed  of  these  being  subsequently  bought  and  picked 
by  the  Government,  and  exchanged  against  the  cultivators* 
own  seed. 

So  far  as  India  is  concerned,  it  is  probable  that,  as  already 
stated,  it  may  be  wiser  at  first  to  aim  at  an  increased  yield  of 
the  local  races,  while  at  the  same  time  carrying  on  experiments 
in  the  production  of  better  qualities  for  export  purposes.  Ac- 
climatisation of  foreign  cottons,  so  often  held  up  as  the  most 
promising  way  of  improvement,  is  very  hazardous.  It  has  been 
tried  on  hundreds  of  occasions  in  India,  and  good  seed  has 
been  distributed  to  the  cultivators,  but  in  a  few  years  at  most 
all  trace  of  it  has  been  lost. 

Jute.  Next  to  cotton,  this  is  the  most  important  fibre 
cultivation  in  the  tropics.  A  very  large  area  in  Bengal  is 
devoted  to  this  crop,  and  of  late  it  has  to  some  extent  been 
supplanting  the  cultivation  of  rice  in  that  province.  The  jute 
plant  (Corchorus  capsularis  and  other  species)  is  a  tall,  stout 


CH.  X]  FIBRE- YIELDING  PLANTS  113 

annual,  growing  to  a  height  of  about  eight  feet,  and  succeeding 
best  in  a  hot  damp  climate  on  the  outer  margin  of  the  tropics, 
as  in  Bengal. 

The  plants  are  sown  annually,  and  allowed  to  grow  for  three 
or  four  months,  when  they  reach  their  full  height,  and  are  then 
cut  with  the  sickle.  They  are  stood  upright  for  one  or  two 
days  in  a  foot  or  two  of  water,  and  are  then  laid  down  in  the 
water  much  as  flax  is  treated  in  the  north  of  Ireland.  The 
object  of  first  standing  the  lower  parts  in  water  is  to  give  them 
the  start  in  retting,  as  they  are  said  to  ret  more  slowly  than  the 
higher  parts  of  the  stem.  The  fibre  is  afterwards  beaten  out 
from  the  decayed  softer  tissues  that  lie  between.  It  is  thus  a 
stem  fibre  that  is  used  in  jute,  and  not  a  fibre  surrounding  the 
seed,  as  in  cotton.  A  good  average  yield  is  from  1200  to 
3000  Ibs.  of  fibre  from  an  acre  of  land,  a  much  larger  yield  than 
in  the  case  of  cotton. 

The  consumption  of  jute  is  enormous,  it  being  mainly  used  in 
the  making  of  the  well-known  gunny  bags  in  which  cotton,  rice, 
etc.,  are  transported.  The  fibres  are  very  long  and  silky,  but 
will  not  stand  exposure  to  the  wet,  and  it  is  consequently  not 
used  for  cordage.  It  is  now  extensively  used  in  making  cloth, 
curtains,  carpets,  and  many  other  things,  being  very  easy  to  spin. 
The  total  export  from  India  averages  about  15,000,000  cwt.a  year, 
the  product  of  about  1,000,000  acres  of  land.  In  the  early  part 
of  the  last  century,  Dundee  made  itself  the  centre  of  the  jute 
industry,  and  large  mills  were  established  there,  but  of  late 
more  and  more  mills  have  been  opened  in  or  near  Calcutta,  and 
Dundee  is  steadily  losing  its  pre-eminence. 

The  chief  directions  in  which  improvement  in  this  culti- 
vation are  to  be  looked  for  are  perhaps  in  the  greater  use  of  the 
residue,  after  extraction  of  the  fibre,  as  manure,  in  green 
manuring  (possibly),  and  in  the  proper  rotation  of  the  crop  with 
something  else.  Fortunately  the  selection  of  the  seed  is  not  at 
present  an  all-important  matter,  as  in  the  case  of  cotton,  or  it 
would  be  but  a  poor  look-out  for  the  native  cultivators,  who  at 
present  deal  with  this  fibre.  At  the  same  time  it  is  probable 
that  a  good  deal  might  be  done  by  selecting  seed  of  the  plants 
that  bear  the  best,  longest,  and  silkiest  fibres. 

w.  8 


114  AGRICULTURE   IN   THE   TROPICS  [PT.  II 

Sunn  Hemp.  This  fibre,  the  product  of  Grotalaria  juncea, 
is  grown  upon  perhaps  150,000  acres  of  land  in  India,  as  a 
summer  crop.  The  fibre  is  somewhat  similar  to  jute,  and  is 
obtained  in  the  same  way,  by  retting  the  stems  in  water, 
washing  and  drying. 

Manila  Hemp.  Attempts  without  number  have  been 
made  to  grow  this  very  valuable  and  important  fibre  in  other 
countries  of  the  tropics,  but  so  far  without  success,  and  this 
industry  remains  a  monopoly  of  the  Philippine  Islands,  from 
which  121,637  tons  were  exported  in  1904,  valued  at  £4,188,835. 
The  plant,  Musa  textilis,  is  a  close  relative  of  the  banana  or 
plantain,  and  the  fibre  is  obtained  from  what  look  like  the 
stems  of  the  plants,  but  which  are  really,  as  explained  under  the 
banana,  the  rolled-up  overlapping  bases  of  the  leaves. 

The  plant  grows  best  on  the  Pacific  slopes  of  the  southern 
islands  of  the  Philippine  Archipelago,  but,  with  the  continual 
demand  for  this  fibre,  which  is  one  of  the  very  finest  of  all,  and 
is  almost  the  only  fibre  that  can  for  instance  be  used  in  the  self- 
binding  reaper,  now  so  largely  employed,  the  planted  area  is 
continually  extending.  The  plants,  which  are  known  in  the 
Philippines  as  Abacd,  are  cultivated  under  shade  at  a  distance 
of  a  few  feet  apart,  and  when  one  plant  is  cut  down  another  is  at 
once  put  in  its  place,  so  that  the  field  contains  plants  in  all 
stages.  The  field  is  weeded  about  once  a  week,  but  otherwise 
there  is  but  little  cultivation  and  the  same  land  is  used  un- 
intermittedly.  The  plants  grow  to  a  height  of  about  ten  feet, 
and  are  considered  ripe  at  about  three  years  old. 

The  plant  is  severed  at  the  ground  by  a  blow  of  a  cutlass, 
the  leaves  removed,  and  the  "  stem  "  brought  in.  The  rolled-up 
leaf-bases  are  then  separated,  and  the  outer  fibrous  layer  of 
each  is  separated  from  the  fleshy  inner  layer,  the  leaves  being 
drawn  under  an  adjustable  knife  in  a  very  primitive  way, 
but  one  which  has  not  yet  been  successfully  replaced  by  any 
machinery. 

A  plant  gives  about  a  pound  of  fibre.  The  fibre  is  bought  by 
merchants  and  graded,  being  packed  into  bales  of  about  28  Ibs. 
Its  average  value  is  about  £25  a  ton. 


XVII.     Sisal  hemp  in  Yucatan 
(Original  in  possession  of  the  Kolonial  Wirthschaftliche  Komitee,  Berlin) 


CH.  X]  FIBRE- YIELDING   PLANTS  115 

Sisal  Hemp.  The  cultivation  of  this  plant  (Agave  rigida, 
var.  sisalana)  is  an  industry  of  some  importance  in  the  Bahamas, 
and  is  of  late  coming  into  a  certain  prominence  as  a  catch  crop 
or  minor  industry  in  northern  India.  It  is  cultivated  on  poor 
soil,  in  dry  places.  The  large  fleshy  leaves  are  cut  after  the 
third  year,  retted  in  water,  and  the  fibre  beaten  out. 

Mauritius  Hemp.  This  plant,  Furcrea  gigantea,  is  used 
in  Mauritius  and  elsewhere,  like  sisal  hemp,  and  others  of  these 
Agave-like  plants  are  also  used  at  times,  while  there  are  in- 
numerable "  native  "  industries  in  fibres  which  never  reach  the 
market. 

Palm  Fibres.  The  most  important,  coir,  the  fibre  of  the 
nut  of  the  coconut  palm,  has  already  been  mentioned,  but  there 
are  many  palms  which  furnish  valuable  fibres  from  the  bases  of 
the  leaves,  e.g.  Raffia  (Raphia  sp.),  Piassaba  (Leopoldinia  sp. 
etc.),  Palmyra  (Borassus  flabellifer),  Kitul  ( Caryota,  urens),  etc. 
These  fibres  are  usually  coarse,  hard,  and  thick,  and  are  largely 
used  for  brushes,  etc. 

There  are  many  excellent  fibres  in  many  plants  of  the 
tropics,  and  people  often  ask — Why  is  not  this  or  that  fibre  in 
use  ?  Why  do  you  (i.e.  agricultural  departments)  not  introduce  it  ? 
and  so  on.  Such  people  forget  that  on  the  whole  a  new  fibre  is 
the  most  difficult  of  all  things  to  introduce  upon  the  market. 
The  market  has  six  or  eight  good  fibres,  cotton,  jute,  flax,  coir, 
hemp,  Manila  hemp,  sunn-hemp,  etc.,  all  of  which  can  be  bought 
at  any  time  in  large  quantity,  are  of  uniform  quality,  and  fairly 
cheap.  One  or  other  of  these  can  be  used  for  practically  any 
purpose  to  which  a  fibre  can  be  applied,  and,  before  a  new  fibre 
can  be  established,  it  has  to  show  that  it  is  at  least  as  good  and 
as  cheap  as  (preferably  better  and  cheaper  than)  one  of  the  old 
ones,  and  that  it  can  at  once  be  got  in  sufficiently  large  supplies 
to  be  used  instead  of  that  old  one.  It  is  this  last  condition 
that  makes  the  establishment  of  new  fibres  so  particularly  hard. 
Ramie,  rhea,  or  China  grass-cloth  fibre  is  at  present  a  case  in 
point.  On  the  whole,  perhaps  this  is  the  finest  of  all  fibres, 

8—2 


116  AGRICULTURE   IN  THE   TROPICS  [PT.  II 

being  strong,  long,  and  very  silky.  For  many  years  attempts 
have  been  made  to  introduce  this  fibre  upon  the  markets,  and 
Ramie  mills  have  been  started  in  many  places.  The  difficulty, 
however,  is  practically  always  the  same.  The  mills  cannot  work 
without  a  large  supply  at  a  very  low  rate ;  the  planter  can  only 
grow  it  to  profit  at  a  comparatively  high  rate.  Consequently  the 
few  planters  who  have  grown  it  have  lost  money,  and  the  mills 
have  never  been  able  to  get  enough  to  work  with.  There  can 
be  very  little  doubt  that  sooner  or  later  Ramie  will  be  an 
established  fibre  with  its  own  special  class  of  uses,  but  the  time 
is  not  yet. 


117 


CHAPTER  XI. 

DYE   STUFFS   AND   TANNING   SUBSTANCES. 

Indigo.  Ten  years  ago  this  was  a  very  large  industry  in 
the  central  parts  of  the  valley  of  the  Ganges  in  India,  and  it  is 
still  of  minor  importance  there,  in  Java,  Guatemala,  and  other 
countries,  but  the  history  of  the  old  madder  industry  of  the 
south  of  France  is  repeating  itself  with  regard  to  indigo.  This 
dye  stuff  can  now  be  well  and  cheaply  produced  by  artificial 
means,  and  the  competition  of  the  great  German  dye  factories 
is  proving  too  much  for  the  planters,  the  profitableness  of  the 
industry  is  being  gradually  destroyed,  and  the  industry  itself  is 
dying  out.  It  may  therefore  be  dismissed  in  a  few  words. 

A  considerable  number  of  species  of  indigo,  Indigofera 
leptostachya,  sumatrana,  tinctoria,  Anil,  and  others,  are  used, 
and  they  are  grown  as  annual  crops,  forming  small  bushes  to 
about  three  feet  high.  The  dye  does  not  exist  in  the  plant  as 
such,  but  arises  through  oxidation,  and  when  the  plants  are  cut, 
they  are  steeped  in  water  for  about  twelve  hours,  and  then  the 
mass  is  agitated  for  a  few  hours  till  oxidation  has  fully  occurred, 
when  the  dye  stuff  is  formed  in  large  quantity. 

Recently,  when  it  was  almost  too  late  to  do  anything,  a 
certain  amount  of  attention  has  been  given  to  the  scientific 
side  of  indigo  cultivation  and  manufacture  in  India,  but  it  does 
not  seem  probable  that  much  can  be  done  to  stave  off  the 
downfall  of  the  industry  before  the  competition  of  the  artificial 
dye.  Java,  where  scientific  treatment  was  begun  sooner,  seems 
to  be  suffering  less  from  the  German  competition.  A  combina- 
tion of  countries  interested  in  indigo  is  required  for  proper 
investigation  and  other  measures. 


118  AGRICULTURE   IN   THE   TROPICS  [PT.  II 

Annatto.  This  dye,  variously  known  as  annatto,  anotto, 
arnatto,  roucou,  etc.,  -is  to  some  small  extent  cultivated  in 
Guiana,  Ceylon,  etc.  The  plant  producing  it,  Bixa  Orellana, 
grows  into  a  small  tree,  and  bears  little  pods  containing  seeds, 
each  surrounded  by  a  fleshy  reddish-yellow  coat.  The  seeds  are 
collected  and  placed  in  hot  water  to  macerate ;  they  are  then 
pounded  up  with  a  pestle,  strained  off  from  the  dye  stuff  and 
thrown  away,  and  the  dye  stuff  is  dried.  There  is  a  small 
industry  in  this  dye,  but  it  is  only  small. 

Other  dyes.  Other  dyestuffs,  of  more  or  less  local  im- 
portance, are  obtained  from  the  rhizomes  or  root-stocks  of 
Curcuma  longa,  the  turmeric,  from  the  wood  of  Caesalpinia 
Sapan,  the  sapanwood,  and  Haematoxylon  Campechianum,  the 
logwood,  and  from  a  fair  number  of  other  plants,  more  especially 
in  India  and  Java,  where  the  natives  have  known  of  them  for 
centuries. 

Tanning  Substances.  Perhaps  the  most  important  of 
these  is  the  cutch  of  Bombay,  with  which  the  true  "khaki" 
cloth  is  dyed  and  shrunk.  This  is  the  wood  of  Acacia  Catechu 
and  other  species,  cut  up  and  boiled  down  to  give  a  strong 
extract.  Gambier,  in  the  Straits  Settlements,  is  also  of  some 
importance ;  the  twigs  and  leaves  of  the  shrub  ( Uncaria 
gambir)  are  boiled  down  to  give  an  extract.  Mangrove  bark 
also  gives  a  cutch  of  some  value,  and  was  formerly  exploited  in 
Ceylon  by  a  company  which  has  since  given  up  operations. 
The  pods  of  the  divi-divi  (Caesalpinia  coriaria)  are  exported 
from  the  West  Indies  and  Colombia,  and  a  good  many  other 
plants  also  yield  tannin  in  sufficient  quantity  to  be  worth 
collecting,  at  least  upon  a  small  scale,  for  local  use. 


119 


CHAPTER    XII. 

OIL-YIELDING   PLANTS. 

OILS  may  in  general  be  divided  into  two  classes,  fixed  and 
volatile  oils.  The  former  are  those  contained  more  especially 
in  seeds,  where  they  form  the  greater  part  of  the  reserve  store 
made  by  the  plant  for  the  growth  of  the  new  plant  from 
the  seed,  and  are  consequently  present  in  large  quantity.  The 
latter  are  usually  those  oils  which  give  their  perfume  to  flowers, 
leaves  or  other  parts,  and  are  present  only  in  small  quantity. 
The  former  are  generally  obtained  by  crushing,  the  latter  by 
some  form  of  distillation. 

Fixed  Oils.  The  most  important  of  these  in  the  tropics 
is  probably  coconut  oil,  which  has  already  been  sufficiently 
considered  under  the  head  of  coconuts.  Enormous  quantities 
of  this  oil  are  exported  from  the  tropics  to  Europe  and  America, 
where  it  is  mainly  used  in  soap  manufacture,  but  also  for 
hairdressing  and  many  other  purposes.  Not  only  is  the  oil 
exported,  but  also  vast  quantities  of  copra,  from  which  the  oil 
is  extracted  in  Europe. 

The  next  most  important  source  of  oil  is  probably  the  oil 
palm  of  West  Africa,  Elaeis  guineensis.  About  70,000  tons  of 
oil  and  175,000  tons  of  kernels  are  annually  exported  from  the 
West  African  coast,  and,  though  cacao  is  rising  in  importance, 
this  is  by  far  the  most  important  export  there. 

The  palm  produces  clusters  of  brown  or  reddish  plum-like 
fruits,  which  are  gathered  and  thrown  into  a  pit  for  a  week  or 


120  AGRICULTURE   IN  THE   TROPICS  [PT.  II 

so  until  a  little  decayed,  when  they  are  pounded  to  get  rid  of 
the  fibre  of  the  husk,  and  then  boiled  in  water,  or  sometimes 
they  are  boiled  at  once.  The  oil  of  course  floats  on  the  surface 
of  the  water,  and  is  then  usually  boiled  to  get  rid  of  the  excess 
of  water. 

The  palm  can  hardly  be  said  to  be  cultivated,  but  grows 
freely  in  the  more  open  country.  The  industry  is  entirely  in 
the  hands  of  the  natives  of  West  Africa,  and  the  first  necessity 
for  its  real  improvement  is  to  place  it  in  the  hands,  or  at  least 
under  the  management,  of  Europeans.  It  has  been  found  by 
careful  experiment  that  the  native  wastes  oil  in  the  most 
extraordinary  way  by  his  treatment  of  the  kernels.  On  the 
average  the  native  requires  1370  bunches  to  give  a  ton  of  oil, 
while  the  same  amount  of  oil  can  be  got  by  careful  treatment 
of  only  405  bunches. 

Apart  from  this  obvious  improvement,  much  may  be  looked 
for  in  the  direction  of  selection  of  seed  from  the  palms  which 
bear  the  most  and  best  oil. 

Of  late  another  oil  has  also  been  obtained  from  the  seeds  of 
the  palm,  which  are  crushed  for  the  purpose. 

Another  oil  which  is  used  in  enormous  quantities  is  ground- 
nut-oil, the  oil  of  the  seeds  of  Arachis  hypogaea,  the  ground-, 
pea-  or  earth-nut,  a  native  of  South  America.  Being  a  crop  of 
only  a  few  months'  duration,  it  can  be  grown  also  in  temperate 
climates,  and  is  in  fact  largely  cultivated  in  the  United  States, 
where  the  pea-nut  is  a  favourite  delicacy.  Within  the  tropics 
it  is  mainly  grown  by  the  Tamils  of  the  Madras  Presidency, 
more  especially  of  the  French  colony  of  Pondicherry. 

The  plant  is  a  small  herb  growing  only  to  a  height  of  about 
a  foot,  and  bears  small  flowers  which  push  themselves  beneath 
the  ground  to  ripen,  and  there  form  curious  fruits,  with  pitted 
markings  on  the  outer  coat,  and  containing  one,  two  or  three 
oily  seeds,  which  are  in  great  favour  as  articles  to  chew,  either 
plain  or  roasted. 

The  plants  are  put  out  in  rows,  and  in  a  few  months  the 
crop  is  ripe,  when  it  is  hoed  up,  the  fruits  taken  off  the  plants, 
dried  in  the  sun,  and  exported.  While  there  is  a  small  demand 
for  the  finest  quality  of  nuts  for  eating,  the  great  demand  is  for 


CH.  XII]  OIL-^uftfa"'fClNTS  121 


oil  for  soap  (and  to  adulterate  or  replace  olive  oil).  The  trade 
in  this  oil  is  largely  centred  in  Marseilles. 

Gingelly  oil,  the  oil  of  Sesamum  indicum,  is  another  oil  of 
considerable  importance,  though  it  is  but  little  exported.  No 
less  than  2,000,000  acres  in  India  and  Ceylon  are  devoted  to 
this  crop,  which  is  a  small  herbaceous  plant.  The  oil  ex- 
pressed from  the  seeds  is  used  for  culinary,  soap-making  and 
perfumery  purposes. 

Innumerable  plants  are  used  as  sources  of  oil  by  the  natives 
of  tropical  countries,  but  the  fact  need  only  be  mentioned 
here.  Other  important  sources  of  oil  than  those  mentioned  are 
cotton-seed,  in  which  oil  there  is  a  large  and  growing  trade, 
especially  in  the  United  States,  niger-seed  (Guizotia  oleifera), 
now  largely  grown  in  India,  Africa,  etc.,  castor-oil  (Ricinus 
communis),  mustard  (Brassica  oleracea). 

Volatile  Oils.  Perhaps  the  most  important  of  these  is 
citron ella,  in  which  a  large  trade  has  been  carried  on  from 
Ceylon  for  many  years.  The  extreme  south  of  the  island 
contains  about  40,000  acres  devoted  to  the  cultivation  of 
citronella  grass  (Andropogon  Nardus),  and  the  export  figures 
in  recent  years  have  been  over  1,000,000  Ibs.  of  oil  per  annum. 
Of  late,  Ceylon  oil  having  acquired  a  bad  reputation  from  the 
adulteration  practised  by  the  Singhalese  in  whose  hands  the 
cultivation  is,  Java  has  begun  to  take  up  the  cultivation,  with 
properly  equipped  factories  under  European  management,  and 
is  turning  out  a  much  better  quality  of  oil  which  commands 
a  much  higher  price. 

The  grass  is  grown  in  tussocks  on  open  hill  slopes,  is 
cut  every  three  months  or  so,  and  distilled  by  passing  steam 
through  it,  when  the  oil  passes  over  with  the  steam  and  may 
be  condensed.  An  acre  yields  perhaps  30-50  Ibs.  of  oil  in  a 
year,  and  the  best  varieties  of  the  grass  want  replanting 
every  second  or  third  year.  The  oil  is  mainly  used  in  the 
preparation  of  scented  soaps,  and  is  also  a  good  preventive  of 
mosquito  bites. 

Lemon-grass  oil,  the  product  of  the  grass  Andropogon 
Schoenanthus,  is  as  yet  mainly  grown  in  South  India,  but  the 


122  AGRICULTURE   IN   THE   TROPICS  [PT.  II 

cultivation  is  also  being  taken  up  in  Ceylon.  The  treatment 
is  the  same  as  for  citronella,  but  the  grass  is  smaller,  and 
yields  a  much  less  amount.  The  price  of  the  oil,  however, 
is  higher. 

Other  useful  scented  oils  are  prepared  from  the  cinnamon 
(q.  v.),  the  clove  (q.  v.),  the  patchouli  (Pogostemon  Patchouli), 
the  sandal- wood  (Santalum  album),  the  bay  (Pimenta  sp.),  and 
other  plants. 


123 


CHAPTER   XIII. 

INDIARUBBER,    GUTTAPERCHA,   AND   CAMPHOR. 

Indiarubber.  This  is  one  of  the  indispensables  of  modern 
times,  and  there  is  now  an  enormous  trade  in  it,  some  65,000  tons 
being  annually  consumed.  The  supply  is  entirely  from  the 
tropics,  and  the  demand  is  constantly  increasing.  The  com- 
mercial article  of  crude  rubber  is  the  dried  or  coagulated  latex 
or  milk  of  many  different  species  of  trees,  belonging  especially 
to  the  families  of  the  Euphorbiaceae,  Urticaceae  or  Moraceae, 
and  Apocynaceae.  Para  rubber,  for  instance,  is  the  dried  latex 
(obtained  by  tapping  or  bleeding  the  stem)  of  Hevea  brasili- 
ensis  and  other  species  of  Hevea,  Mexican  rubber  of  Castilloa 
elastica,  African  rubber  of  species  of  Landolphia,  Lagos  rubber 
of  Funtumia  elastica,  Indian  rubber  of  Ficus  elastica,  Ceara  or 
Mani9oba  rubber  of  Manihot  Glaziovii,  piauhyensis,  dichotoma, 
etc.,  and  so  on. 

For  a  very  long  time  these  trees,  occurring  wild  in  the 
forests,  have  been  simply  exploited  for  rubber,  often  by  wild 
or  semi- wild  tribes,  without  any  care  being  taken  to  preserve 
the  trees.  The  natural  result  is  that  they  are  becoming  more 
and  more  scarce,  and  the  trade  in  wild  rubber  from  India,  from 
much  of  Africa,  and  elsewhere,  has  very  largely  decreased. 
Even  in  Brazil,  where  the  best  rubber  of  all  is  obtained,  the 
collectors  have  now  to  go  to  a  much  greater  distance  up 
the  Amazon  river,  and  inland  from  the  stream,  to  get  their 
supplies. 

As  it  therefore  appeared  evident  that  the  history  of  Cinchona 


124  AGRICULTURE   IN   THE   TROPICS  [PT.  II 

(Ch.  IX,  above)  would  repeat  itself  in  rubber,  an  expedition  was 
sent  to  tropical  America  in  1875  by  the  Indian  Government, 
aided  by  the  Royal  Botanic  Gardens  of  Kew,  and  Mr  Wickham, 
who  conducted  it,  and  Mr  Cross,  who  led  a  second  expedition, 
brought  back  many  seeds  and  plants,  which  were  carefully 
nursed  at  Kew  and  sent  out  to  the  tropics,  mainly  to  Ceylon, 
it  being  evident  that  the  climate  of  the  greater  part  of  India 
was  unsuited  to  the  growth  of  the  trees.  Since  that  time,  from 
the  produce  of  the  Ceylon  trees,  the  Indian  Government  has 
established  plantations  in  Burma  and  elsewhere. 

The  first  rubber  plants  to  flower  in  Ceylon  and  come  into 
free  bearing  were  the  Ceara  rubbers,  and  during  the  period 
from  1879  to  1884  this  rubber  was  largely  planted  in  Ceylon. 
In  these  early  days  of  rubber  planting  the  methods  of  tapping 
to  get  the  rubber  were  not  very  well  understood,  and  the  yield 
was  but  small,  while  the  price  of  rubber  was  then  compara- 
tively very  low.  The  result  was  that  the  plantations  did  not 
pay,  and  very  many  of  them  were  entirely  rooted  out  to  make 
room  for  tea,  which  was  just  then  coming  into  prominence  in 
the  island,  and  was  proving  to  be  very  profitable.  The  export 
of  rubber  soon  sank  to  a  few  hundredweights  a  year,  and 
remained  at  that  figure  till  Para  rubber  came  in. 

The  Pard,  rubber-trees  introduced  into  Ceylon  flowered  in 
1881,  and  from  that  time  onwards  every  seed  has  been  used. 
At  first  the  very  small  supply  was  used  in  other  Government 
botanic  gardens  all  over  the  tropics,  so  that  now  the  tree  is 
very  common  everywhere.  About  1884  a  few  began  to  be 
distributed  to  estates  in  Ceylon,  and  many  places  now  have 
fine  old  trees  from  this  seed.  But  little  interest  was  taken 
in  the  trees  for  about  twenty  years,  except  by  the  heads  of 
the  botanical  departments  in  Ceylon,  Java  and  Singapore.  In 
Ceylon  the  largest  single  tree  was  tapped  every  second  year 
from  1888  to  1896,  in  a  very  crude  manner,  large  V's  being 
cut  in  the  stem  at  intervals  with  a  hammer  and  chisel,  and 
the  milk  allowed  to  run  down  into  coconut  shells  at  the  foot 
of  the  tree,  where  it  dried.  In  this  way  13 J  Ibs.  of  dry  rubber 
were  obtained  in  nine  years,  or  an  average  of  1^  Ibs.  a  year ; 
the  tree  was  ten  years  old  when  first  tapped.  At  the  then 


XVIII  (a).     Rubber  Plantation  in  Ceylon 


XVIII  (b).     Making  biscuits  on  the  small  scale 


OF    THE 

|   UNIVERSITY    } 

OF 


CH.  XIII]      INDIARUBBER,   GUTTAPERCHA,   AND   CAMPHOR         125 

price  of  rubber  a  yield  like  this,  only  obtained  after  waiting 
ten  years,  was  hardly  sufficient  to  tempt  anyone  into  the 
cultivation,  and  in  this  condition  the  question  remained  until 
1897,  when  further  experiments  were  made,  and  the  im- 
portant discovery,  or  rather  rediscovery — the  facts  being  well 
known  to  the  natives  of  the  Amazon  valley — of  the  "  wound- 
response  "  was  made  by  the  writer.  In  the  following  two  years 
this  was  fully  worked  out  by  Mr  John  Parkin,  then  Scientific 
Assistant  in  the  Royal  Botanic  Gardens  of  Ceylon,  and  an 
abstract  of  some  of  his  results  may  be  of  interest.  In  general 
it  is  found  that  if  a  small  area  of  the  bark  be  tapped  a  second 
time  within  a  short  period,  the  amount  of  latex  that  flows 
from  it  is  larger  than  at  the  first  tapping,  and  this  increase 
may  even  go  on  for  a  considerable  time.  Thus  from  40  in- 
cisions made  on  March  25,  1899,  only  60  c.c.  of  latex  were 
obtained ;  on  March  30,  from  a  further  40  close  to  the  old, 
105  c.c.  flowed ;  on  April  6,  220  c.c.,  while  in  the  thirteenth 
tapping  on  June  1,  328  c.c.  were  obtained,  and  on  June  (j, 
449  c.c.,  or  nearly  eight  times  the  amount  realised  by  the  first 
tapping.  These  were  no  doubt  exceptional  figures,  but  in 
general  his  work  showed  that  about  three  times  as  much 
milk  would  be  obtained  later,  as  at  the  first  tapping.  On  the 
basis  of  these  and  other  experiments,  results  were  published, 
showing  that  there  was  a  possibility  of  a  profit  of  about 
27  °/Q  after  the  tenth  year,  and  as  seed  was  then  beginning 
to  be  available  in  some  quantity,  people  began  to  take  up 
the  planting  of  rubber,  and  the  area  under  this  cultivation 
has  increased,  with  one  small  check,  from  year  to  year.  In 
1907  rubber  planting  was  the  main  topic  of  conversation  in 
tropical  planting  circles,  and  a  great  "  boom  "  went  on  in  it,  so 
that  now  there  are  probably  about  150,000  acres  under  rubber 
in  Ceylon,  120,000  in  the  Malay  Peninsula,  100,000  in  Java, 
85,000  in  Mexico,  20,000  in  India,  and  at  least  as  much  more 
in  other  countries,  such  as  Sumatra,  Borneo,  etc.  The  great 
drop  in  price  of  rubber  in  the  end  of  1907  fortunately  checked 
extension  before  over-production  was  ensured. 

The  earlier  pioneers  of  rubber  cultivation  have  made  much 
larger  profits  than  the  27  %  anticipated,  because  the  trees  have 


126  AGRICULTURE   IN   THE   TROPICS  [PT.  II 

proved  to  give  a  yield  at  six  or  seven  years  old  instead  of  ten, 
the  yield  has  been  larger,  and  the  price  of  rubber  has  risen 
enormously  in  the  last  few  years.  The  profit  of  27  °/Q  was 
estimated  on  a  yield  of  100  Ibs.  an  acre,  selling  at  2s.  a  lb., 
whereas  the  same  yield  has  been  obtained  three  years  sooner, 
and  sold  at  nearly  6s.  a  lb.  This  price  of  course  could  not  be 
expected  to  last,  and  in  the  end  of  1907  and  beginning  of  1908 
it  has  fallen  to  4s. 

Not  only  did  Mr  Parkin  work  out  the  wound-response,  and 
thus  change  what  appeared  to  be  only  a  moderately  remune- 
rative industry  into  a  very  profitable  one,  but  he  also  worked 
out  the  way  of  coagulating  rubber  into  "  biscuits,"  the  form  in 
which  the  bulk  of  the  cultivated  Para  rubber  has  hitherto 
appeared  on  the  market  (for  the  sheets  of  Malaya  are  simply 
larger  biscuits).  Instead  of  allowing  the  latex  to  run  down  the 
tree,  and  thus  become  dirty,  and  instead  of  allowing  it  to  dry 
into  a  mass  of  dingy  black  rubber  in  a  coconut  shell,  he  showed 
that  it  could  be  collected  in  little  tins,  placed  one  under  each 
cut,  and  then  mixed  together  and  coagulated  by  the  addition  of 
the  calculated  amount  of  acetic  or  other  acid.  The  milk  having 
been  filtered  before  clotting,  this  resulted  in  the  formation  of 
clean  "biscuits"  free  of  all  tangible  dirt,  which  is  so  largely 
present  in  all  the  wild  rubbers  of  commerce.  These  biscuits 
as  a  matter  of  fact  lose  but  little  in  the  washing  and  drying 
through  which  crude  rubber  subsequently  goes. 

During  the  last  five  years,  a  very  large  trade  in  rubber 
biscuits  and  sheet  has  sprung  up  between  Ceylon  and  the  Malay 
Peninsula  and  the  markets  of  Europe,  though  of  course  the 
amount  so  far  exported  is  a  mere  drop  in  the  bucket  as 
compared  with  the  consumption.  The  prices  obtained  for  this 
clean  rubber  have  been  from  6d.  to  8d.  per  lb.  higher  than 
those  given  for  the  best  South  American  rubbers,  and  this  is 
often  supposed  by  planters  to  mark  a  real  superiority.  It  is 
very  difficult  to  get  at  the  truth,  but  the  fact  seems  to  be  that 
manufacturers  generally  object  to  the  dry  cultivated  rubbers  as 
lacking  in  strength  and  resiliency,  and  are  using  them  as  yet 
for  the  manufacture  of  solution,  for  which  their  cleanliness  more 
especially  fits  them.  The  higher  price  paid  for  the  cultivated 


CH.  XIII]      INDIARUBBER,   GUTTAPERCHA,   AND   CAMPHOR         127 

rubbers  simply  represents  the  fact  that  there  is  more  rubber  in 
a  pound,  and  if  the  relative  prices  be  calculated  out,  it  will  be 
found  that  they  are  really  getting  a  lower  price,  for  8  Ibs.  of 
cultivated  rubber  are  equal  to  10  Ibs.  of  wild  Amazon  rubber  in 
the  amount  of  rubber  or  caoutchouc  contained,  while  the  latter 
sell  at  410  pence  against  378  pence  for  the  former,  at  present 
rates. 

Careful  comparison  of  the  two  rubbers  at  the  Rubber 
Exhibition  held  in  Ceylon  in  1906  convinced  the  writer  that 
the  cultivated  rubber  was  very  much  lacking  in  resiliency  as 
compared  with  fine  Para  rubber  from  the  Amazon,  and  the  next 
question  was  how  was  this  greater  resiliency  to  be  obtained. 
The  great  difference  between  the  two  being  that  the  wild 
rubber  contained  about  15%  of  water,  while  the  cultivated 
only  contained  0*45  °/Qt  the  obvious  thing  to  do  was  to  try  what 
effect  the  leaving  in  of  the  water  would  have.  Some  experi- 
ments were  immediately  put  in  hand  by  Mr  Bamber,  the 
Government  Chemist,  and  biscuits  were  compressed  without 
drying  into  blocks,  by  means  of  a  hydraulic  press.  The  reports 
on  this  entirely  novel  form  of  rubber  from  Europe  have  been 
favourable  but  we  have  not  yet  solved  the  problem  of  the 
difference  in  quality  between  wild  and  plantation  rubbers. 

With  the  enormous  area  already  planted  in  rubber  in 
the  countries  with  cheap  labour,  it  is  evident,  that  if  the 
cultivated  rubber  can  be  turned  out  as  strong,  and  much  more 
clean,  than  the  wild,  a  formidable  competition  is  springing 
up.  Already  there  is  enough  planted  to  supply  about  one 
half  of  the  consumption.  When  the  price  falls  from  the 
present  figure  of  about  4s.  to  say  2s.  6d,  the  countries  like 
Africa  will  have  to  go  to  the  wall,  while  the  Eastern  countries 
of  cheap  labour  will  still  be  able  to  make  a  profit  on  the 
cultivation. 

Para  rubber  is  a  strictly  equatorial  cultivation,  and  grows 
within  about  10°  of  the  equator,  and  up  to  a  level  of  about 
2500  feet  above  the  sea,  though  that  at  high  elevations  does 
not  grow  nearly  so  rapidly  as  that  in  the  plains  at  sea  level.  It 
is  planted  out  at  distances  apart  of  10  to  25  feet,  and  wants 
plenty  of  rainfall  and  good  drainage  ;  trees  planted  in  undrained 


128  AGRICULTURE   IN   THE   TROPICS  [?T.  II 

swamps  soon  die.  In  suitable  places  the  trees  grow  rapidly, 
increasing  in  girth  at  about  four  inches  a  year,  and  when  they 
girth  two  feet  they  are  usually  tapped.  Many  systems  of  tapping 
are  in  vogue,  and  no  one  system  has  as  yet  established  itself 
as  the  standard.  The  two  favourite  methods  at  present  are  the 
herring-bone  and  the  half-spiral.  In  the  former,  a  groove  is  made 
down  one  side  of  the  tree,  with  lateral  grooves  leading  into  it ; 
in  the  latter,  a  spiral  groove  is  made  round  half  the  tree,  and 
others  parallel  to  it.  In  both  cases  metal  cups  are  fixed  at  the 
bottom  ends  of  the  grooves.  Lately  a  new  method  of  tapping, 
by  simply  cutting  a  large  Y  on  one  side  of  the  bottom  of  a  tree 
(this  is  based  on  the  fact  proved  by  Mr  Parkin  that  much  more 
latex  flows  from  the  lowest  12  inches  than  from  any  above)  and 
renewing  the  wound  by  paring,  is  coming  in,  as  it  requires 
much  less  labour.  It  was  first  tried  by  Mr  Pears,  and  is  being 
extensively  experimented  with  by  Mr  Kelway  Bamber  in 
Ceylon. 

Tapping  in  the  early  days  of  the  rubber  industry  was  by 
means  of  a  hammer  and  chisel,  but  now  various  knives  are  used, 
which  shave  off  very  thin  portions  of  bark.  There  are  a  great 
number  of  such  knives  upon  the  market,  but  none  can  be  called 
absolutely  satisfactory.  The  cut  is  opened  first  of  all,  and  then 
the  wound-response  is  obtained  by  shaving  off  a  thin  portion  of 
bark  at  intervals.  Lately,  however,  there  is  a  certain  reaction 
against  this  continual  shaving,  and  several  good  estates  open  a 
new  cut  every  second  day.  The  milk  is  collected  in  the  cups, 
and  brought  into  the ,  factory,  where  it  is  coagulated  into 
biscuits  or  sheet  in  metal  vessels  of  suitable  shape.  The 
sheets  or  biscuits  are  sometimes  exported  as  such,  or  they  are 
made  into  blocks,  wet  or  dry. 

Latterly,  machinery  is  coming  in  rapidly  for  treating  the 
much  larger  amounts  of  latex  that  have  now  to  be  handled. 
One  favourite  form  in  which  rubber  is  turned  out  is  crepe, 
which  is  produced  by  a  machine  that  rolls  the  clot  between 
rollers  moving  at  different  speeds,  and  turns  out  a  long  ribbon 
of  crinkled  irregular  stuff.  The  crepe  may  be  dried  in  vacuo 
and  turned  into  block. 

The  growth  of  the  rubber  export  from  Ceylon  will  serve 


XX.     Rubber  tapping  on  the  Amazon  by  aid  of  a  scaffolding 

(Original  in  possession  of  the  Kolonial  Wirthschaftliche 
Komitee,  Berlin) 


UNIVERSITY 


CH.  XIII]      INDIARUBBER,  GUTTAPERCHA,   AND   CAMPHOR          129 

as  an  indication  of  how  rapidly  this  new  industry  is  becoming 
important. 

1901  66  cwt.     London  price  4s.  l\d.  per  Ib. 

1902  189  4s.  Od. 

1903  389  5s.  Od. 

1904  676  6s.  Od. 

1905  1401  6s.  4d. 

1906  3705  55.  lid. 

1907  7093  3s.  lOd. 

Next  to  the  rubber  industry  of  the  east,  the  most  important 
cultivation  is  that  of  Mexico,  in  which  about  80,000  acres  are 
covered  with  Castilloa  elastica.  This  tree  is  but  little  in  favour 
in  Ceylon  and  the  other  countries  with  cheap  and  plentiful 
labour,  but  in  Mexico,  where  the  labour  is  both  scanty  in 
amount  and  very  expensive,  this  tree,  which  is  there  native,  is 
very  much  liked,  as  at  one  tapping  it  gives  a  larger  amount  of 
rubber  than  the  Hevea.  As  labour  is  so  scarce  that  the  trees 
cannot  be  tapped  more  than  say  once  in  two  months,  this  suits 
very  well,  and  the  fact  that  Castilloa  trees  cannot  be  tapped 
much  oftener  than  that  without  injury  does  not  matter.  The 
best  tools  for  tapping  this  tree  have  yet  to  be  discovered,  as  has 
also  the  best  method  of  treating  the  latex.  It  is  quite  possible 
that  treating  the  latex  with  a  centrifugal  machine  just  like 
cream  may  prove  to  be  a  very  good  method  of  preparing  the 
rubber,  though  indications  are  not  wanting  that  so  pure  a 
caoutchouc  as  is  thus  made  is  lacking  in  strength.  This  method 
was  discovered  several  years  ago  by  Mr  Biffen,  but  has  not  yet 
been  successfully  put  to  any  practical  use. 

Ceara  rubber,  Manihot  Glaziovii,  has  not  yet  been  made  the 
basis  of  any  important  cultivation  industry,  though  there  is 
a  small  amount  in  Ceylon,  German  East  Africa,  etc.  It  grows 
like  a  weed,  and  comes  into  bearing  in  a  few  years.  There 
being  no  wound  response  in  this  tree,  the  yield  is  small,  and  in 
spite  of  its  suitability  to  many  districts  where  Para  rubber  will 
not  grow,  it  has  not  yet  been  much  taken  up.  A  good  tapping 
tool  for  this  tree  is  still  a  desideratum. 

Lately1  three  new  species  of  Manihot,  M.  dichotoma,  M. 

1  Ule,    "  Kautschukgewinnung   und  Kautschukhandel  in   Bahia,"  Notizbl. 
Berlin,  v.  1908,  p.  5. 

w.  9 


130  AGRICULTURE   IN   THE   TROPICS  [PT.  II 

heptaphylla,  and  M.  piauhyensis,  have  been  discovered  by  Ule 
in  the  province  of  Bahia  in  Brazil.  It  is  said  that  these  yield 
better  than  M.  Glaziovii,  and  already  plantations  of  them  have 
been  made  in  South  America. 

Lagos  rubber,  Funtumia  elastica,  has  been  a  little  planted  in 
some  of  the  British  West  Indian  and  West  African  colonies,  but 
as  yet  no  rubber  has  been  exported.  Plantations  of  Assam 
rubber,  Ficus  elastica,  have  been  made  in  a  few  places  in  India 
and  Malaya,  but  the  results  have  been  disappointing,  the  latex 
being  hard  to  coagulate  unless  mixed  with  that  of  Hevea. 

Guttapercha.  This  substance,  allied  to  indiarubber,  and 
obtained  from  trees  of  the  family  Sapotaceae,  especially  species 
of  Palaquium,  has  as  yet  been  mainly  collected  from  the  wild 
trees  in  the  islands  of  the  Malay  and  Philippine  Archipelagoes, 
but  of  late  attempts  to  cultivate  it  have  been  made  in  Java  and 
elsewhere,  the  gutta  being  obtained  from  the  leaves  by  a  process 
of  maceration.  The  yield  however  is  very  poor  as  compared 
with  that  of  the  rubber  trees,  and  a  higher  price  cannot  be 
obtained,  so  that  it  is  not  likely  that  its  cultivation  will  be 
much  taken  up.  Already  new  preparations  of  rubber  are 
beginning  to  take  the  place  of  gutta  in  cables,  and  rubber  balls 
are  coming  into  use  in  golf. 

Camphor.  This  product  also  requires  mention,  and  being 
a  deposit  in  wood  and  leaves,  will  perhaps  come  best  along  with 
rubber.  The  tree  (Cinnamomum  Camphora)  is  a  native  of  Japan 
and  Formosa,  and  until  lately  has  not  been  much  cultivated 
outside  of  those  countries.  There  the  camphor  is  usually 
obtained  by  felling  old  trees,  cutting  up  the  wood  and  distilling 
it  with  steam.  In  recent  years  the  Japanese  Government  has 
endeavoured  to  establish  a  monopoly,  an  attempt  which  of 
course  has  stimulated  the  wish  to  grow  it  in  other  countries. 
The  botanical  department  in  Ceylon,  for  instance,  has  been 
carefully  fostering  this  cultivation  for  a  good  many  years,  until 
now  there  are  probably  about  800  acres  planted  in  camphor  in 
Ceylon,  and  the  area  is  steadily  growing.  Recently  a  little 
camphor  has  been  exported  from  the  island.  Camphor  is  also 
grown  in  other  countries. 


OF    THE 

UNIVERSITY 

OF 

!UfORN\j 


CH.  XIII]      INDIARUBBER,  GUTTAPERCHA,   AND   CAMPHOR         131 

The  plant  is  grown  in  rows,  and  rapidly  expands  into  a 
small  tree,  which  is  kept  more  or  less  coppiced.  At  about 
three  years  old  it  can  be  used  for  obtaining  camphor ;  the  young 
twigs  are  cut  off,  and  are  then  distilled  with  steam,  the  vapour 
being  passed  into  a  large  wooden  receptacle,  when  the  camphor 
condenses  around  it.  About  1J%  of  the  weight  of  the  green 
twigs  is  obtained  as  camphor. 


9—2 


132  .  [pT.  ii 


CHAPTEE  XIV. 

MIXED    GARDEN    CULTIVATION   BY   TROPICAL 
NATIVES. 

As  already  mentioned,  this  is  perhaps  the  most  common 
form  of  "  cultivation  "  among  the  poorer  villagers  in  the  tropics. 
Though  the  yield  is  in  general  extremely  poor,  the  mixture  of 
plants  gives  one  at  least  of  the  advantages  of  rotation  of  crops, 
the  comparatively  slow  exhaustion  of  the  soil,  owing  to  the 
fact  that  the  various  crops  take  different  proportions  of  the 
different  elements  of  the  food  supply  from  the  soil,  and  conse- 
quently the  latter  tends  to  become  exhausted  at  a  much  slower 
rate,  if  at  all.  In  this  way,  therefore,  the  villager  can  grow  the 
old  familiar  crops  on  the  same  land  for  an  almost  indefinite 
period,  and  this  alone  makes  a  great  appeal  to  the  man  without 
any  capital,  for  if  his  crops  were  to  give  out,  he  could  not  afford 
to  bring  a  new  piece  of  land  (even  supposing  that  he  had  such 
a  piece)  into  cultivation,  and  wait  several  years  for  any  return. 
The  majority  of  tropical  crops  are  not  annuals. 

No  cultivation,  in  the  proper  sense  of  the  word,  is  carried 
on  in  these  mixed  gardens,  but  trees,  shrubs,  and  herbs  of  many 
kinds  are  simply  allowed  to  grow  together  in  the  most  casual 
intermixture,  and  the  ground  between  them  is  never  turned 
over,  but  is  allowed  to  grow  up  in  turf,  upon  which  a  few 
miserable  cattle  are  put  out  to  graze.  The  typical  mixed 
garden  of  Ceylon  may  be  seen  in  Plate  I  (on  the  left). 

In  the  wetter  southern  parts  of  Ceylon,  in  Java,  in  much 
of  India,  and  in  the  West  Indies,  this  system — or  want  of 
system — may  be  seen  in  full  development.  The  principal  trees 
in  southern  Ceylon  are  the  jak,  the  mango,  the  areca,  the  kitul, 
the  coconut,  the  candlenut,  the  shrubs  oranges,  limes,  papaws, 
pomegranates,  plantains,  etc.,  the  herbs  yams,  pepper,  brinjal 


CH.  XIV]   MIXED  GARDEN  CULTIVATION  BY  TROPICAL  NATIVES  133 

or  egg-fruit,  bandakai  or  okra,  pulses  and  other  things.  In 
Malaya  the  durian  takes  the  place  of  the  jak,  in  the  West 
Indies  the  areca  is  little  grown,  and  so  on,  but  the  general  look 
of  these  jungly  gardens  is  much  the  same.  Nothing  is  pruned 
or  properly  taken  care  of,  with  the  result  of  a  miserably  poor 
yield,  but  the  villager  does  not  realise  this,  nor  if  he  did  would 
he  be  likely  to  change  to  any  system  which  would  involve  more 
work,  or  more  expenditure  of  capital.  Until  the  provision  of 
cheap  capital  has  been  thoroughly  well  attended  to,  there  is 
but  little  chance  of  any  alteration  in  this  system.  Could  the 
villager  even  afford  to  manure  his  ground  or  to  till  it,  it  is 
probable  that  his  yields  would  be  increased,  but  want  of  capital 
and  dislike  to  more  work  prevents  this. 

No  system  is  adhered  to  in  planting  out  such  gardens,  but 
in  actual  fact  it  is  found  that  their  composition  is  not  unlike,  in 
any  one  district,  in  the  kinds  and  numbers  of  plants  upon  any 
one  acre.  As  we  cannot  suppose  that  the  villagers  copy  one 
another  in  the  numbers  of  plants,  though  they  probably  do  in 
regard  to  the  kinds,  we  must  look  upon  this  wild  jungly  garden 
as  representing  what  is  now  usually  termed  a  "plant-society," 
suited  to  the  soil  upon  which  it  is  growing,  and  to  the  general 
conditions  of  life  in  the  place. 

The  great  area  devoted  to  this  form  of  cultivation — if  indeed 
it  can  be  called  cultivation  at  all — indicates  the  kind  of  thing 
that  is  likely  to  happen  with  a  purely  peasant  population, 
unstimulated  by  the  presence  of  more  enterprising  agricul- 
turists who  have  some  capital  at  their  disposal,  who  can  give 
work  upon  their  estates,  and  who  can  create  a  trade  that  will 
absorb  anything  in  the  nature  of  "  export "  products  that  the 
villagers  may  have  to  sell.  A  country  in  which  there  are  none 
but  peasant  cultivators  must  be  extremely  poor  in  everything 
that  means  money,  though  there  may  be  no  actual  lack  of  the 
necessaries  of  life.  The  only  taxable  value  in  most  tropical 
countries  being  the  exportable  goods,  the  revenue  of  such  a 
country  must  be  exceedingly  small,  there  will  be  no  money  for 
public  works,  the  country  will  go  back  instead  of  forward,  and 
practically  drop  out  of  the  progress  of  the  race.  We  shall 
return  to  this  subject  in  Part  III. 


134  [PT.  ii 


CHAPTER  XV. 

THE   DISEASES  OF  PLANTS   IN   THE   TROPICS,   AND 
THEIR  TREATMENT. 

INSECT  and  fungus  enemies  to  plants  are  very  numerous  in 
the  tropics,  and  seem,  probably  owing  to  the  fact  that  so  many 
crops  are  perennial,  and  to  the  fact  that  there  is  no  winter  to 
check  them,  on  the  whole  more  injurious,  and  more  to  be 
feared,  than  in  Europe.  The  great  classical  example  of  injury 
is  of  course  the  terrible  attack  of  the  Hemileia  vastatrix,  or 
coffee-leaf  fungus,  upon  coffee  cultivation  in  Ceylon  from  about 
1875  to  1885,  during  which  period  a  once  very  large  and  pros- 
perous industry  was  reduced  to  abject  ruin. 

Nowadays,  there  seems  much  less  likelihood  of  such  an 
event  occurring  again,  since  the  rapidly  extending  agricultural 
departments  in  the  various  tropical  countries  are  in  most  cases 
provided  with  the  help  of  a  Mycologist  for  the  study  of  fungus, 
and  of  an  Entomologist  for  that  of  insect  pests,  and,  still  more 
important  than  this,  the  agriculturists  themselves  are  now 
realising  that  it  is  much  more  to  their  advantage  to  give  timely 
notice  of  any  attack  of  disease  upon  their  cultivations  and  to 
get  suggestions  early  as  to  the  best  mode  of  treatment,  than  to 
conceal  it  until  perhaps  it  has  got  such  a  hold  that  it  is  no  longer 
possible  to  eradicate  it.  True  it  is  that  in  this  way  many 
diseases  are  treated  which  would  not  absolutely  require  such 
treatment,  i.e.  diseases  which  are  merely  sporadic  and  would 
not  spread,  but  this  does  not  affect  the  general  position  that  all 
diseases  are  in  general  treated  early,  and  that  disease  is  thus 
usually  kept  under  control.  It  must  also  be  admitted  that  it  is 


CH.  XV]      DISEASES   OF  PLANTS  AND  THEIR  TREATMENT          135 

in  general  only  by  white  planters  in  the  tropics  that  measures 
of  this  kind  are  taken  with  any  precision  or  regularity,  but  it 
so  happens  that  it  is  upon  their  cultivations  that  disease  stands 
the  greatest  chance  of  getting  out  of  control,  for  the  natives 
have  usually  either  the  mixed  cultivations  in  which  disease 
does  not  so  readily  spread,  or  rice  or  grain  fields,  which  are 
annually  left  fallow  or  rotated  with  other  crops  for  considerable 
periods.  Thanks  to  the  efforts  of  many  students,  especially  in 
the  United  States,  the  methods  employed  in  combating  disease 
are  becoming  more  and  more  systematised.  It  would  lead  too 
far  to  go  into  details  here,  but  the  chief  methods  in  use  may 
be  summed  up  under  the  following  heads: — 

(1)  The  destruction,  in  general  by  fire,  of  diseased  trees, 
plants,  or  parts  of  plants.     In  this  very  simple  way  the  spores 
which  carry  the  infection  of  the  disease  are  absolutely  destroyed, 
and  if  this  method  be  steadily  practised,  the  disease  may  be 
prevented  from  spreading,  and  may  even  in  time  become  almost 
eradicated.     One  great  difficulty  in  the  way  of  such  treatment 
upon  many  estates,  is  the  lack  of  any  vacant  areas  upon  which 
the  fires  may  be  lighted. 

(2)  The  collection  and  killing  of  parasitic  insects  and  their 
eggs.     This  is  obviously  the  corresponding  remedy  to  the  last- 
mentioned. 

(3)  Spraying.     This  in  general  means  the  wetting  of  the 
diseased,   or   in   preventive   cases   the   healthy,   areas   of   the 
infected  plants  (or  in  some  preventive  cases,  the  healthy  plants) 
with  a  stream  of  some  fluid  in  which,  so  long  as  it  remains 
upon  the  leaf,  stem  or  fruit,  the  spores  of  the  fungus  cannot 
germinate,  or  the  eggs  of  the  insect  cannot  live,  or  which  makes 
the  plant  distasteful  to  the  fungus  or  the  insect,  or  which  kills 
the  insect  or  fungus  upon  the  plant.     There  are  almost  innu- 
merable forms  of  spraying  compounds,  but   in   general   they 
contain,  if  for  attack  upon  fungi  some  salt  of  copper  (as  for 
instance  copper  hydrate  in  the  commonest  spray  of  all,  Bor- 
deaux mixture),  if  for  attack  upon  sucking  insects  an  emulsion 
of  kerosene  oil,  and  if  for   attack    upon  biting  insects  some 
compound  of  arsenic.     For  attacks  upon  mites,  sulphur  is  the 
usual  foundation  of  any  insecticide.     The  forms  of  instrument 


136  AGRICULTURE   IN   THE   TROPICS  [PT.  II 

through  which  they  are  sprayed  on  to  the  plants  are  equally 
numerous,  but  in  general  they  consist  of  small  receptacles 
which  can  be  carried  by  one  man,  from  a  compressed-air 
chamber  in  which  a  stream  of  air  drives  a  fine  jet  of  the 
compound  through  a  nozzle  which  breaks  it  up  into  a  fine 
spray.  The  large  horse  and  steam  sprayers  employed  in  Cali- 
fornia and  elsewhere  have  not  yet  come  into  use  in  the  tropics. 

(4)  Isolation  of  the  diseased  plants  by  digging  trenches. 
This  is  in  general  adopted  for  the  purpose  of  checking  the 
spread  of  root-attacking  fungi,  and  is  usually   very  effective, 
provided  the  trench  be  made  outside  of  the  outermost  range  as 
yet  covered  by  the  fungus.     Jungle  stumps  left  in  the  ground 
when  clearing  are  the  great  hotbed  for  such  root  fungi. 

(5)  Prohibition  of  the  removal  of  plants,  seeds,  or  parts  of 
plants,  from  districts  already  infected  by  disease,  into  districts 
not  already  infected.     This  is  more  a  precautionary  measure, 
and  simply  checks  the  transfer  of  infection  into  new  districts. 

(6)  Isolation  of  small  areas  of  the  cultivated  crops  by  the 
planting  of  "shelter  belts"  of  trees  through  them,  as  is  so 
common  in   Ceylon,   where  the    tea  estates  are  divided  into 
"  fields "  by  such  belts.     In  this  way,  a  pest  is  checked  from 
spreading  to   another  field,   when  it  has  devastated  the  first 
one  attacked. 

The  mention  of  method  (5)  above  leads  on  naturally  to  the 
subject  of  quarantine  regulations  against  diseases,  which  are  in 
force  in  a  few  countries.  These  regulations  may  take  various 
forms,  as  for  instance  the  prevention  of  the  importation  of 
plants  of  a  particular  kind  from  a  country  in  which  plants  of 
that  kind  are  known  to  be  subject  to  a  disease  not  as  yet  known 
in  the  country  in  which  the  law  is  put  into  force.  Thus  the 
importation  of  pepper  plants  into  Ceylon  is  prohibited,  so  far 
as  South  India  is  concerned,  there  being  a  very  bad  disease 
widely  spread  among  pepper  plants  in  that  country;  so  also 
the  importation  of  cacao  from  the  Dutch  East  Indies  is  prohi- 
bited, on  account  of  the  disease  known  as  "  krulloten-ziekte." 

A  very  common  phase  of  the  quarantine  regulations  is  the 
compulsory  "  fumigation  "  at  the  port  of  entry  of  the  plants  or 
fruits  or  seeds.  The  skins  of  oranges  or  other  fruits  very  com- 


CH.  XV]      DISEASES   OF  PLANTS  AND  THEIR  TREATMENT          137 

monly  carry  living  scale  insects,  often  of  dangerous  kinds,  and 
such  consignments  are  very  often  compulsorily  fumigated,  or 
subjected  to  the  vapour  of  hydrocyanic  acid  gas  or  other 
destructive  agent  to  kill  any  scale  or  other  insects  that  may  be 
adhering  to  them.  Against  fungus  pests  this  method  is  not 
successful. 

Ceylon  has  lately  established  a  "  Pests  Ordinance,"  under 
which  any  dangerous  pest  may  be  proclaimed,  with  the  methods 
recommended  for  treatment.  The  employment  of  these  is  then 
compulsory,  and  recalcitrants  may  be  fined  in  the  police  courts. 
This  is  now  (1908),  for  example,  being  used  against  the  stem- 
bleeding  disease  of  coconut  palms.  Inspectors  are  appointed 
for  every  district  in  which  it  occurs.  They  instruct  the 
headmen  in  methods  of  recognising  and  treating  the  disease, 
and  with  them  make  lists  of  all  infected  places.  Notices  are 
then  served  on  the  occupiers  to  take  the  necessary  measures, 
and  the  headmen  have  to  see  that  this  is  done,  and  prosecute 
where  necessary. 


138  [PT.  ii 


CHAPTER  XVI. 

STOCK. 

As  this  book  is  not  intended  as  a  handbook  for  the  practical 
field  agriculturist,  there  is  no  need  to  go  very  fully  into  the 
question  of  the  different  kinds  of  stock  of  all  sorts  that  are  to 
be  found  in  the  tropics,  nor  the  ways  of  feeding  them.  There  is 
a  very  great  variety  of  different  breeds  of  cattle,  sheep,  pigs, 
horses,  goats,  and  poultry  in  the  tropics,  more  especially  in 
India,  and  it  would  lead  too  far  to  describe  them. 

Cattle  are  used  in  the  tropics  mainly  for  draught,  drawing 
carts,  ploughs,  trotting  carriages,  etc.,  and  the  great  majority 
of  the  breeds  have  been  evolved  for  this  purpose,  most  of  them 
being  of  the  zebu  type,  with  a  large  hump  behind  the  neck, 
upon  which  the  yoke  pulls.  Milk  cattle  are  comparatively 
rare,  the  bulk  of  the  milk  used  coming  from  the  draught 
cattle,  which  will  not  as  a  rule  yield  milk  unless  the  calf  be 
allowed  to  remain  with  them,  a  fact  which  still  further  reduces 
the  already  small  amount  of  milk. 

Speaking  generally,  the  best  breeds,  whether  of  cattle  or  of 
sheep,  have  been  produced  in  those  districts  where  there  is 
plenty  of  grazing  land,  as  for  instance  in  Gujarat  and  other 
parts  of  the  north  of  India.  As  we  pass  south,  into  the 
Dekkan,  where  there  is  little  grazing  land,  and  a  somewhat 
precarious  rainfall,  or  into  Travancore  and  Ceylon,  where  there 
is  hardly  any  proper  grazing  land  at  all,  and  too  much  rain, 
the  breeds  generally  deteriorate.  Even  in  the  little  island  of 
Ceylon,  the  breeds  are  in  general  better  in  the  dry  north  than 
in  the  wet  south. 

The  best  breeds,  also,  are  in  the  districts  where  large  herds 


CH.  XVI]  STOCK 

or  flocks  are  found  under  the  care  of  men  who  are  practically 
professional  herdsmen,  whereas  in  districts  where  the  breeding 
is  casual,  and  in  the  hands  simply  of  villagers,  the  breeds  are 
poor. 

Again,  a  decided  cold  in  the  winter  season  seems  to  give 
better  results,  and  consequently,  other  things  being  equal,  the 
breeds  deteriorate  from  north  to  south. 

Buffaloes,  which  must  not  be  confused  with  the  American 
bison,  are  mainly  used  in  ploughing  in  wet  rice  fields  and  are 
extremely  useful  animals  for  this  purpose,  being  practically 
water  beasts. 

Sheep  in  the  equatorial  regions  of  the  tropics  are  very  slim 
and  leggy  animals,  but  as  we  go  farther  north,  as  with  cattle, 
the  breeds  improve.  Of  horses  much  the  same  is  true  ;  the  best 
animals  in  use  in  the  tropics  for  drawing  carriages  or  for  riding 
are  in  general  what  are  locally  known  in  the  east  as  "  walers," 
the  imported  Australian  horses,  which  do  not  generally  breed 
in  the  tropics. 

One  great  point  for  consideration  here  being  what  can  be 
done  to  improve  the  breeds  of  cattle,  sheep,  horses,  etc.,  we 
must  consider  the  general  conditions  of  such  work.  Many 
people,  who  have  not  properly  thought  out  the  question,  say, 
import  European  stock,  and  cross  the  native  with  it.  This 
however  is  really  one  of  the  worst  things  that  can  be  done, 
speaking  in  a  general  way,  and  leaving  out  of  account  any 
special  requirements  of  the  small  European  community  in  the 
tropics.  As  a  rule,  the  animals  imported  from  cold  countries 
rapidly  deteriorate,  and  native  stock  crossed  with  large  imported 
breeds  produces  leggy  weedy  animals  inferior  in  power  and 
stamina  to  the  pure  native  stock. 

In  each  district  the  type  of  beast  has  come  to  what  we  may 
call  an  equilibrium  with  the  food  supply,  and  we  must  not 
change  the  former  without  first  changing  the  latter.  The 
general  type  of  the  beasts  may  strike  a  European  visitor  as 
small  and  inferior,  yet  it  may  be  the  best  that  the  district  can 
do,  with  its  present  conditions  of  food  supply.  In  Ceylon,  for 
example,  there  is  but  little  pasture  land,  and  the  beasts  are 
simply  turned  out  to  graze  where  they  can  in  the  majority  of 


140  AGRICULTURE    IN   THE   TROPICS  [PT.  II 

cases,  and  get  but  poor  quantity  or  quality  of  food.  Were  the 
breed  suddenly  "  improved "  and  larger  or  more  powerful  or 
energetic  beasts  produced,  the  villager  would  be  utterly  unable 
to  feed  them  properly.  This  is  a  very  important  consideration 
which  is  generally  lost  sight  of. 

Again,  the  present  size  and  habit  of  the  beasts  is  suitable  to 
the  present  size  and  build  of  the  various  agricultural  tools  in 
use  in  any  locality,  and  were  the  former  altered  in  any  serious 
degree,  the  latter  must  be  altered  likewise,  or  there  would  be 
simply  a  waste  of  power.  The  alteration  of  the  beasts  employed 
for  draught  purposes  must  go  on  hand  in  hand  with  that  of  the 
tools  or  implements  they  are  to  use,  and  we  shall  see  that  any 
alteration  in  the  latter  must  be  very  slow  and  gradual. 

In  breeding  in  the  tropics,  we  must  not  be  in  too  great  a 
hurry  to  make  what  we  may  imagine  to  be  improvements  in 
the  breed.  There  may,  for  instance,  be  certain  characters  in  a 
given  breed  which  we  may  think  to  be  objectionable,  and  yet 
which  may  in  reality  be  due  to  the  climate  or  other  local  condi- 
tions, and  which  if  removed  would  spoil  or  seriously  deteriorate 
the  breed. 

Strictly  speaking,  we  want  to  know  the  history  of  the  steps 
by  which  each  breed  has  come  into  its  present  condition,  and 
the  forms  from  which  it  was  originally  evolved.  But  in  prac- 
tice this  is  quite  beyond  the  skill  of  the  average  breeder,  and 
we  must  be  content  to  go  slowly,  and  to  improve  the  breeds  by 
the  selection  of  the  best  only  for  parents,  by  prevention  of 
indiscriminate  crossing,  and  by  an  occasional  cross  with  another 
nearly  related  breed.  At  the  same  time  that  the  breed  is  thus 
gradually  improved,  the  improvement  of  the  implements  that 
are  to  be  used  by  the  cattle  can  be  taken  in  hand,  and  for  this 
among  many  other  reasons,  the  veterinary  department  should 
in  all  cases  form  a  branch  of  the  department  of  agriculture,  so 
that  the  work  may  be  properly  coordinated. 

Proper  selection  and  mating  of  the  male  and  female  wants 
careful  attention ;  it  is  very  little  use  giving  good  males  to 
cross  inferior  females.  Attention  must  be  directed  to  the 
improvement  of  the  females  also,  and  to  the  liberal  feeding  of 
the  young,  which  will  let  them  grow  up  into  better  beasts. 


CH.  XVI]  STOCK  141 

The  provision  of  the  best  possible  food  supply  is  another 
matter  that  requires  very  careful  attention ;  there  is  too  much 
casual  or  insufficient  feeding  going  on  among  village  cattle.  It 
is  far  better  to  keep  only  a  few  cattle  and  to  feed  them  well, 
than  to  keep  more  and  feed  them  badly.  In  particular  the 
proper  feeding  and  rearing  of  the  young  stock  wants  careful 
attention.  Even  if  the  villager  has  plenty  of  food,  he  rarely 
knows  how  to  feed  the  beasts  to  the  best  advantage  with  it. 

There  are  many  directions  in  which,  on  the  other  hand, 
improvement  can  be  at  once  put  in  hand,  for  instance  in  the 
castration  of  cattle,  which  in  many  tropical  countries  is  very 
clumsily  and  cruelly  performed,  and  in  the  treatment  of  epi- 
demic diseases,  such  as  rinderpest,  by  prompt  and  careful 
sanitation. 

One  direction  which  the  breeding  of  improved  races  of  cattle 
might  take,  for  example,  is  the  production  of  a  race  of  good 
milkers.  Almost  all  the  breeds  hitherto  existing  are  for 
draught,  and  the  few  milkers  are  not  very  well  suited  to  other 
climates  than  their  own. 

Pig  rearing  is  practised  to  some  extent  in  the  Malay  Penin- 
sula, and  in  other  countries  frequented  by  the  Chinese,  who 
regard  pork,  etc.,  as  great  necessities  of  life,  but  there  is  little 
doubt  that  the  breeds  could  be  further  improved  in  many  ways. 

Poultry  in  the  tropics  are  as  a  rule  of  very  mixed  breeds, 
and  could,  having  careful  regard  to  the  limitations  of  the  food 
supply,  be  very  considerably  improved. 


PART  III. 

AGRICULTURE   IN   THE   TROPICS 
(GENERAL). 


CHAPTER  I. 

VILLAGE   OR   PEASANT   AGRICULTURE. 

AGRICULTURE  in  the  tropics  may  be  fairly  well  divided  into 
-capitalist  or  "planting"  enterprises,  and  "village"  or  peasant 
cultivations  of  rice-field,  grain-field,  or  yam-garden,  and  fruit- 
garden,  worked  upon  the  very  small  scale,  without  hired  labour. 

The  ideal  of  some  administrators  in  the  tropics  has  ap- 
parently been,  and  of  a  sprinkling  of  people  in  Europe  and 
America  who  have  no  acquaintance  with  actual  tropical  con- 
ditions still  is,  a  kind  of  "  old-fashioned  socialist "  one — a  dense 
population  of  small  cultivators,  each  tilling  his  own  little  piece 
of  land,  and  growing  or  making  practically  everything  that 
he  requires.  The  nearest  approach  to  this  is  probably  to  be 
seen  in  outlying  districts  of  many  tropical  countries,  remote 
from  the  influence  of  Europeans  or  Chinese.  In  the  most 
extreme  cases  there  may  be  practically  no  capitalist  enterprise 
in  the  country  at  all,  and  the  corollary  is  of  course  the  absence 
of  any  appreciable  export  trade,  or  in  other  words,  so  far  as 
the  remainder  of  mankind  are  concerned,  the  country  might 
almost  as  well  be  non-existent.  This  is  agriculture  reduced  to 
its  greatest  simplicity,  and  the  agriculturist  must  not  have  any 
but  the  very  simplest  wants,  as  he  must  himself  supply  them. 

The  following  description  of  village  agriculture  in  Ceylon 


CH.  I]  VILLAGE   OR   PEASANT  AGRICULTURE 

may  therefore  serve  as  general,  since  the  differences  are  mainly 
in  detail ;  in  much  of  India,  for  instance,  other  grains  take  the 
place  of  rice,  and  in  the  West  Indies  yams  and  other  vegetables 
do  the  same. 

The  ordinary  Ceylon  villager,  living  on  his  ancestral  lands, 
cultivates,  as  his  fathers  cultivated,  with  cheap  and  primitive 
tools,  the  few  products  necessary  for  his  simple  mode  of  life. 
On  the  irrigated  land,  or  fields,  as  distinguished  from  the  un- 
irrigated  or  high  land,  he  grows  the  rice  which  forms  the  staple 
of  his  food.  His  little  hut  stands  on  the  high  land,  and  is 
usually  surrounded  by  a  wilderness  of  trees,  shrubs,  and  herbs 
of  many  kinds,  as  described  in  Chapter  XIV  of  Part  II.  The 
composition  of  the  wilderness  varies  in  different  districts,  but 
the  general  look  is  much  the  same.  In  it  he  grazes  one  or  two 
poor  specimens  of  cattle,  or  turns  them  into  the  rice  field  after 
the  harvest,  or  out  upon  the  road. 

The  greater  part  of  the  high  land,  except  in  thickly  populated 
districts,  is  occupied  by  chena  cultivation,  or  is  land  recovering 
from  chena,  which  is  a  favourite  method  of  cultivation  with  the 
villager,  as  already  described  in  Chapter  I  of  Part  I.  After  two 
or  three  crops  he  abandons  the  land,  which  grows  up  in  scrub 
for  ten  or  more  years  before  it  can  be  again  "  chenaed." 

The  villager,  especially  in  the  more  outlying  districts,  has 
but  few  wants  that  cannot  be  supplied  by  his  own  fields,  or  by 
the  labour  of  himself  or  his  women  folk.  Cotton  fabrics  for  his 
scanty  clothing,  kerosine  oil  for  his  lamp  where  he  has  become 
too  advanced  for  coconut  oil,  a  few  simple  curry  stuffs,  such 
as  dried  Maldivian  fish,  a  few  brass  and  earthenware  utensils, 
simple  furniture  made  by  the  village  carpenter,  chunam  or  lime 
for  his  chew  of  betel,  and  perhaps  a  little  arrack  at  times,  sum 
up  most  of  his  requirements. 

The  sale  of  a  little  rice,  a  few  coconuts,  some  betel  nuts 
or  leaves,  or  (if  he  live  near  a  town  and  has  become  enterprising) 
of  some  vegetables  or  fruit,  will  provide  him  with  these.  He 
is  usually  in  debt  for  advances  on  his  crops,  if  not  actually  for 
loans  on  his  land  itself,  to  the  money  lender  or  the  village  shop- 
keeper— often  the  same  individual.  Only  too  frequently  the 
latter  becomes  at  last  the  possessor  of  the  land,  while  the  former 


144  AGRICULTURE   IN   THE   TROPICS  [PT.  Ill 

owner  works  on  it  as  tenant  or  even  as  coolie,  or  drifts  away  into 
the  town  or  into  the  less  settled  parts  of  the  country. 

To  live  a  strenuous  life  for  the  sake  of  gain  or  social  ad- 
vancement is  foreign  to  the  habits  of  mind  and  body  of  the 
village  farmer.  Let  him  but  make  sufficient  for  his  wants,  to 
bring  up  his  children,  and  to  pay  the  interest  or  renewals  on  his 
debts,  and  he  is  generally  content.  He  does  not  aim  at  creating 
trade ;  his  caste,  unalterable  by  riches  or  poverty,  is  commonly 
high,  he  likes  to  take  his  ease  and  pleasure  with  his  family  and 
friends.  Further,  he  has  not  the  capital  nor  the  land  necessary 
for  such  a  speculative  occupation  as  growing  crops  upon  which 
he  cannot  actually  live,  but  which  he  has  to  sell  in  a  market 
whose  fluctuation  is  beyond  his  knowledge  or  control,  and  in 
which  therefore  he  is  largely  at  the  mercy  of  the  middlemen 
or  combinations  of  middlemen  who  buy  his  crops.  Not  that 
he  is  averse  to  making  money,  but  he  cannot  afford  to  risk  even 
a  small  sum,  most  often,  probably,  has  not  the  sum  to  risk.  This 
is  the  true  explanation  of  much  of  his  obstinate  conservatism — 
a  conservatism  by  the  side  of  which  that  of  the  small  European 
or  American  farmer  is  change  and  progress  of  the  swiftest. 

It  is  hard  to  see  upon  what  grounds  the  "socialist"  position, 
described  above,  can  be  justified,  or  logically  defended,  though 
at  the  same  time  it  is  that  to  which  nearly  all  tropical  countries 
would  come  were  it  not  for  the  presence  in  them  of  Europeans 
or  Chinese.  Leaving  out  of  consideration  the  fact  that  there 
is  usually  some  capitalist  enterprise  among  all  but  the  most 
backward  races,  the  white  powers  are  in  actual  possession  of 
most  tropical  countries,  and  must  so  settle  their  agricultural 
conditions  that  there  shall  be  an  export  from  them  of  those 
products  which  are  unattainable  in  the  colder  climates.  The 
present  native  of  most  tropical  countries  having  come  there 
by  ousting  someone  else,  there  is  no  ground  on  which  to  object 
to  an  invasion  of  the  more  efficient  races  who  will  produce  such 
a  trade,  if  the  natives  do  not. 

Furthermore,  for  such  a  simple  ideal,  it  is  very  great  waste 
to  provide  the  tropical  countries  with  roads  and  railways,  as 
is  rapidly  being  done,  for  they  are  almost  fatal  to,  and  quite 
unnecessary  for,  such  agriculture. 


CH.  I]  VILLAGE   OR  PEASANT  AGRICULTURE  145 

There  is  further  the  ethical  objection,  that  no  country  has 
a  right  to  exclude  itself  from  the  general  progress  of  mankind, 
as  must  under  these  conditions  almost  necessarily  be  the  case. 

A  country  in  which  a  peasant  proprietary  has  largely  come 
into  existence  in  recent  years  is  the  island  of  Montserrat  in  the 
West  Indies,  and  from  an  interesting  report  upon  that  island  by 
the  Hon.  Mr  Francis  Watts  we  may  quote  as  follows: 

"It  may  be  interesting  to  draw  attention  to  the  circumstances 
of  the  people  living  in  the  northern  district  of  Montserrat... 
Lying  beyond... Church  Hill  there  exists  a  somewhat  isolated 
and  self-contained  community,  largely  consisting  of  peasant 
proprietors,  or  of  peasants  cultivating  land  upon  a  share  system. 
These  people  suffered  severely  in  the  hurricane;  all  their  houses 
and  practically  all  their  belongings  were  destroyed.  They  have 
now  built  up  the  elements  of  a  small  peasant  community,  which 
has  no  means  of  wage  earning,  but  which  grows  its  own  food 
and  obtains  the  small  amount  of  money  necessary  for  the 
purchase  of  clothing,  tools,  and  the  like,  from  its  small  exports 
from  the  district.  These  exports  consist  of  sugar,  grown  and 
manufactured  on  a  share  system;  of  vegetables  taken  to  the 
village  markets  in  other  parts  of  the  island;  of  small  numbers 
of  cattle,  horses,  and  small  stock:  and  of  vegetables  and  fruit, 
chiefly  bananas,  shipped  to  Antigua.  All  these  exports  are 
small,  but  they  suffice  for  the  modest  requirements  of  the 
district.  This  district  will  probably  feel  somewhat  acutely 
the  loss  of  the  papain  industry1.  The  conditions  of  life  here 
are  on  a  comparatively  low  plane,  but  they  are  interesting 
as  illustrating  what  results  from  a  peasant  proprietary,  cut 
off  from  the  power  of  wage  earning  by  the  absence  of  regular 
estates  employing  labourers.  The  habit  of  wage  earning  has 
been  weakened  or  lost.  This  is  seen  by  the  fact  that,  when  a 
short  time  ago  the  Montserrat  Company  planted  a  small  area 
in  cotton  in  this  district,  difficulty  was  found  in  obtaining  labour, 
and  comparatively  high  rates  had  to  be  paid.  The  resources  of 
such  a  district  are  few,  civilizing  influences  are  apt  to  weaken, 

1  Which  by  the  way,  was  mainly  destroyed  by  the  competition  of  Ceylon, 
showing  that  even  the  poorest  peasant  community  cannot  altogether  escape 
from  the  world-wide  competition  that  now  goes  on. 

w.  10 


146  AGRICULTURE   IN    THE   TROPICS  [PT.  Ill 

roads  are  likely  to  be  poorly  kept,  public  works,  in  the  way  of 
bridges,  buildings  or  improvements,  will  be  difficult  to  secure, 
and  the  governmental  administration  will  have  to  come  down 
to  a  similarly  low  level.  Such  conditions  remind  me  of  those 
prevailing  at  Tortola,  where,  while  there  is  practically  no  poverty, 
life  is  on  a  low  level,  and  progress  is  slow  or  absent; 

"A  district  so  constituted  is  liable  to  rapid  fluctuation  in 
its  prosperity.  A  drought  means  starvation  and  distress  from 
want  of  resources;  propitious  seasons  as  quickly  restore  the 
small  measure  of  prosperity. 

"  With  a  peasant  proprietary  body,  the  exports  of  a  com- 
munity will  be  small ;  the  individuals  will  be  chiefly  engaged 
in  raising  food,  and  in  producing  a  limited  quantity  of  articles 
for  export,  in  order  to  supply  the  small  amount  of  clothing, 
and  the  tools  and  implements  which  must  be  imported.  Should 
the  tendency  be  towards  extensive  exports,  the  peasant-pro- 
prietary system,  by  acquisition  of  property,  will  pass  into  the 
estate  system." 

The  white  races  of  Europe  and  America  at  present  control 
the  tropics,  and  they  must  and  will  have  the  products  of  the 
latter  in  large  quantities.  This  is  evident  from  a  glance  at 
the  list  of  tropical  cultivations  described  in  this  book.  They 
include  rice,  tea,  cocoa,  coffee,  coconuts,  sugar,  pepper,  cinnamon, 
tapioca,  many  fruits,  sago,  tobacco,  quinine,  indiarubber,  and 
many  products  of  less  importance.  The  white  powers  cannot 
and  will  not  allow  the  largest  and  perhaps  the  richest  areas  of 
the  world  to  be  wasted  by  being  entirely  devoted  to  the  supply 
of  their  own  native  population,  when  they  are  capable  of  both 
feeding  a  large  population  of  their  own,  and  supplying  the 
wants  of  the  colder  zones  in  many  foodstuffs,  fibres,  oils,  timbers, 
and  other  useful  products,  otherwise  unattainable. 

The  white  races  govern  the  tropics  on  the  ground  that  the 
native  is  unfitted  to  govern  himself  in  a  way  suitable  to  the 
general  political  state  of  the  world,  and  the  same  consideration 
applies  with  equal  force  to  agriculture.  Native  agriculture,  far 
from  being  efficient  or  perfect,  is  on  the  contrary  very  backward 
in  many  respects,  and  must  be  improved.  Even  in  the  industry 
which  of  all  others  should  be  best  understood  and  practised  by 


CH.  I]  VILLAGE   OR   PEASANT   AGRICULTURE  147 

the  races  of  tropical  mankind,  that  of  rice-growing,  the  white 
man  is  able  to  produce  a  larger  crop  at  less  cost;  while  his 
labour  is  ten  times  as  costly,  he  produces,  man  for  man,  about 
twenty  or  more  times  the  crop.  Similar  phenomena  are  seen 
in  the  results  in  the  tropics  themselves  of  European  enterprises 
worked  with  native  labour.  The  Ceylon  tea  planters,  by  the 
use  of  large  machinery,  and  by  good  methods,  have  been  able 
almost  completely  to  undersell  on  the  markets  the  produce  of 
China,  made  by  the  most  cheap  and  industrious  native  labour 
in  the  world,  and  similar  results  have  followed  other  similar 
enterprises.  The  same  phenomenon  is  apparently  about  to 
occur  in  a  competition  between  the  rubber  grown  in  Ceylon 
and  the  Malay  peninsula,  and  that  collected  in  the  forests 
of  the  tropics.  It  is  not  easy  to  improve  upon  native  methods 
in  agriculture,  and  the  improvement  must  be  gradual  and 
cautious,  but  of  its  possibility  there  can  be  no  doubt. 

Though  this  ideal  of  a  vast  population  of  small  cultivators, 
growing  all  that  they  require,  and  consiiming  all  that  they 
grow,  has  long  held  a  more  or  less  acknowledged  sway,  it  is 
now  rapidly  disappearing,  and  it  is  being  recognised  that  native 
agriculture  is  just  as  susceptible  of  improvement  as  European, 
and  that  an  ideal  to  aim  at  is  to  create  a  native  class  of  capitalist 
planters  who  shall  grow  produce  for  export,  just  as  the  European 
planters  now  do.  Furthermore,  as  already  pointed  out,  ttie 
directly  contradictory  course  of  opening  up  roads  and  even 
railways  has  already  been  embarked  upon  beyond  the  possibility 
of  drawing  back,  and  this  course  is  necessarily  more  or  less  fatal 
to  such  simplicity  in  agriculture. 

Such  extreme  simplicity  may  yet  be  found  in  villages  in 
India  and  elsewhere  far  removed  from  the  stream  of  traffic. 
But  with  the  opening  up  of  the  country,  it  almost  necessarily 
becomes  to  a  large  extent  obsolete.  The  villager  learns  new 
wants  and  needs  money  to  satisfy  them,  and  at  the  same  time 
markets  for  his  produce  become  available  to  him,  either  by 
his  carrying  it  to  the  towns  or  villages,  or  by  his  selling  it  to 
peripatetic  purchasers  at  his  own  door.  He  also  learns,  it  may 
be  as  well  to  point  out,  that  in  many  cases  he  can  make  a  little 
more  money  and  more  easily,  at  other  pursuits  than  agriculture. 

10—2 


148  AGRICULTUKE  IN   THE  TROPICS  [PT.  Ill 

The  wants  of  the  poor  villager,  other  than  those  that  can 
be  satisfied  by  his  own  labour  or  that  of  his  women  folk,  are 
even  yet  of  the  simplest,  but  the  essentially  important  point  is 
that  they  now  exist,  and  in  all  reasonable  probability  will 
continue  to  grow.  Even  now  he  nearly  always  grows  something 
to  sell,  be  it  only  a  few  coconuts,  and  as  time  goes  on  he  will 
be  drawn  more  and  more  into  interdependence  with  his  fellow 
men  for  the  supply  of  his  wants,  and  will  have  to  grow  yet 
more  produce  for  market. 

This  then,  being  a  natural  tendency,  and  almost  inevitable 
under  the  circumstances,  is  one  of  the  features  of  agricultural 
progress  to  be  encouraged,  and  we  must  consider  what  are  the 
chief  difficulties  in  the  way  of  such  progress,  and  what  may  be 
done  to  remove  or  lessen  them. 


149 


CHAPTER   II. 

THE   RELATIONS   OF   THE   PEASANT   TO   THE   LAND 
AND   CROPS;    CULTURE   SYSTEMS,   ETC. 

IN  a  general  way  it  is  not  untrue  to  say  that  the  villager  is 
the  owner  of  his  own  land,  or  is  a  peasant  proprietor,  but  there 
is  much  variation  in  different  countries,  and  not  infrequently 
he  is  only  the  tenant  of  a  large  landowner.  Except  in  crowded 
countries,  he  can  usually  obtain  by  purchase  what  land  he 
wants. 

If  he  is  not  to  settle  down  to  the  very  simple  and  primitive 
type  of  agriculture  described  in  the  last  chapter,  proper  trans- 
port facilities  must  be  provided,  and  his  land  made  accessible 
by  roads,  canals,  or  in  other  ways.  Next  to  the  financing  of 
his  cultivations,  this  is  the  most  important  thing  to  be  attended 
to  if  he  is  to  make  any  progress,  and  we  may  again  draw 
attention  to  the  remarks  under  this  head  in  Chapter  IV  of 
Part  I.  In  a  country  already  thickly  peopled,  it  is  evident 
that  the  system  there  suggested,  of  laying  out  road  reservations 
in  two  directions  at  right  angles,  and  at  distances  of  a  mile 
apart,  would  be  impracticable,  or  too  expensive,  and  in  eastern 
countries  would  not  divide  one  village1  from  another.  In  such 
a  case  the  country  should  be  carefully  surveyed,  and  the 
existing  lines  of  transport  and  foot  traffic  followed  as  much  as 
possible,  being  widened  where  necessary.  So  far  as  practicable 

1  The  term  village  in  India  and  the  east  corresponds  more  to  that  of  parish 
in  England,  the  whole  country  being  broken  up  into  villages,  which  meet  by 
irregular  boundaries.  Each  village  is  under  a  headman  who  is  responsible  to 
higher  Government  officials. 


150  AGRICULTURE    IN   THE   TROPICS  [PT.  Ill 

the  roads  should  be  made  to  divide  the  villages,  the  boundaries 
of  the  latter  being  redefined,  if  necessary,  in  places.  In  this 
way  the  country  will  be  broken  up  into  villages  bounded  on  all 
sides  by  roads,  and  with  the  opening  up  of  the  country  that 
would  thus  be  brought  about,  there  would  be  some  chance  of 
the  villager  growing  "  commercial "  products,  and  taking  some 
part  in  the  trade  of  the  country. 

Not  only  should  roads  be  made,  or  demarcated,  on  these 
lines,  but  also,  when  the  natural  drainage  is  not  good,  drains, 
which  may  also  become  very  useful,  if  large  enough,  as  canals 
for  the  cheap  transport  of  produce.  Every  buyer  of  land, 
however  small  a  piece  he  may  purchase,  should  be  able  to 
secure  that  he  will  somewhere  have  a  frontage  upon  a  road, 
and  that  he  will  be  able  to  drain  it. 

It  is  almost  needless  to  remark  that  the  roads  and  drainage- 
canals  must  give  access  to  markets  where  the  produce  can  be 
disposed  of.  The  provision  of  local  markets  is  a  very  important 
consideration  in  the  development  of  agriculture,  and  peasant 
agriculture  should,  at  first  at  any  rate,  be  encouraged  to  grow 
produce  for  local  markets.  Should  the  villager  grow  good  fruit 
or  vegetables,  of  kinds  not  too  novel  in  the  neighbourhood,  he 
can  usually  dispose  of  them  locally,  especially  if  he  be  near  a 
town,  or  near  a  population  say  of  fishermen,  who  do  not  grow 
for  their  own  consumption.  If  on  the  other  hand  he  grow 
"  export "  products,  he  should  be  provided  with  a  local  market, 
say  by  the  agency  of  planters  growing  the  same  products  and 
purchasing  his.  If  there  be  no  local  market  of  any  kind  in  a 
district,  it  is  practically  idle  to  expect  that  district  to  progress 
in  agriculture,  unless  a  market  can  be  provided,  e.g.  by  coopera- 
tion among  the  growers  to  send  their  produce  to  a  distant 
market. 

As  already  mentioned,  differences  of  race  are  often  to  be 
found  among  the  agricultural  population  in  any  given  country 
in  the  tropics.  Thus  in  Ceylon,  there  are  English,  Sinhalese, 
Tamils,  and  Mohammedans,  in  Jamaica  English,  Negroes,  East 
Indians,  and  so  on.  Where  there  is  this  mixture,  the  proper 
use  of  it  becomes  a  matter  of  considerable  importance  in 
settling  new  districts,  or  in  increasing  the  density  of  population 


XXII  (a).     Mule  Plough  in  Mexico 
(Original  in  possession  of  the  Kolonial  Wirthschaftliche  Komitee,  Berlin) 


U 


XXII  (b).     River  transport  in  Ceylon 


CH.  II]       RELATIONS   OF  PEASANT   TO   LAND   AND  CROPS  151 

in  the  districts  already  settled.  If  we  accept  the  principle 
above  indicated,  that  progress  in  cultivation  of  crops  for  market 
is  desirable  of  encouragement  among  the  villagers,  then  it  is 
important  that  the  latter  be  broken  into  groups,  so  to  speak, 
by  having  among  them  larger  agricultural  enterprises,  better 
educated  agriculturists,  and  the  traders  whose  presence  is 
involved  by  that  of  the  larger  enterprises  mentioned.  The 
small  peasant  cultivator,  unstimulated  by  the  presence  of  any 
other  type  of  worker,  and  without  the  example  offered  by  a 
larger  and  better  managed  agricultural  enterprise,  will  progress, 
if  at  all,  with  the  utmost  slowness.  But  though  very  conserva- 
tive, he  is  not  quite  blind  to  his  own  interests,  nor  unwilling  to 
improve  his  methods  to  make  more  profit  or  to  save  labour, 
but  he  will  not  do  this  on  mere  hearsay;  he  wants  concrete 
examples  near  his  own  door. 

Mixing,  such  as  is  here  suggested,  of  races  of  men  and  types 
of  agriculture  will  also  have  a  tendency  to  raise  the  general 
standard  of  living  in  the  country,  and  thus  to  create  a  larger 
local  market  for  produce.  It  is  practically  idle  to  expect  the 
poor  villager  to  grow  crops  for  which  he  cannot  obtain  an 
immediate  market  in  his  own  district  (as  will  be  more  fully 
dealt  with  below).  If  he  is  to  progress  in  agricultural  enter- 
prise, he  must  be  tempted  into  it  by  finding  that  it  is  profitable, 
with  immediate  returns,  or  else  he  will  (if  progressive)  go  to 
other  occupations  which  hold  out  greater  attractions  in  pay  or 
in  type  of  work,  and  abandon  his  fields.  The  only  alternative 
is  force,  which  was  formerly  fairly  commonly  employed  in 
dealing  with  "  native  "  agriculturists,  but  which  is  now  obsolete. 
Even  in  Java  the  old  "  culture  system  "  is  practically  extinct, 
surviving  only  in  coffee  cultivation  in  certain  districts.  No 
experiment  in  the  promotion  of  agriculture  among  Asiatic 
natives  has  attracted  so  much  attention  as  this  famous  system, 
introduced  in  1830  by  Van  den  Bosch,  then  Governor-General 
of  the  Netherlands  Indies.  Though  in  many  ways  it 'was  or 
became  harsh  and  oppressive,  it  seems  certain  that  it  has  had 
a  considerable  share  in  rendering  Java  such  a  nation  of  in- 
dustrious and  comparatively  skilled  cultivators  as  it  now  is. 
But  the  effects  of  dense  and  rapidly  increasing  population,  of 


152  AGRICULTURE   IN  THE  TROPICS  [PT.  Ill 

the  opening  up  of  the  country  by  a  splendid  system  of  com- 
munications, and  of  the  absence  of  mines  or  other  competing 
attractions,  must  not  be  forgotten.  Java  is  now  so  densely 
populated  that  her  people  must  work  hard  to  make  a  living, 
and  they  have  no  other  large  industry  but  agriculture,  while  at 
the  same  time  they  have  easy  local  communication  and  good 
local  markets.  A  similar  state  of  affairs  may  be  seen  in  the 
extreme  north  of  Ceylon,  and  in  much  of  Bengal  or  Madras 
and  the  more  densely  populated  West  Indian  islands. 

To  quote  Prof.  Clive  Day,  the  plan  of  the  culture  system 
was  in  brief  as  follows :  instead  of  paying  to  the  Government  a 
certain  proportion  of  their  crops,  the  natives  were  to  put  at  its 
disposal  a  certain  proportion  of  their  land  and  labour-time. 
The  revenue  would  then  consist,  not  in  rice,  which  was  almost 
universally  cultivated  and  which  was  of  comparatively  little 
value  to  the  Government,  but  in  export  products  grown  under 
the  direction  of  the  Government  contractors  on  the  land  set 
free  by  the  remission  of  the  former  tax  (for  of  course  less  rice 
would  have  to  be  grown).  According  to  the  estimate,  the 
natives  would  give  up  only  one-fifth  of  their  land  and  one-fifth 
of  their  time  in  place  of  two-fifths  of  their  main  crop.  The 
Government  promised  to  bear  the  loss  from  failure  of  crops  if 
this  was  not  directly  due  to  the  fault  of  the  cultivators,  and 
moreover  promised  to  pay  the  natives  a  certain  price  for  such 
amounts  as  they  furnished.  The  Government  proposed  in  this 
way  to  secure  products  suited  for  export  to  the  European 
market,  on  which  it  expected  to  realise  profits  largely  in  excess 
of  the  prices  paid  to  natives  and  contractors  and  of  the  costs  of 
administration.  To  the  natives  it  promised  increased  prosperity 
and  a  lighter  burden  of  taxation,  as  a  result  of  the  fuller 
utilisation  of  their  chances  under  the  far-sighted  management 
of  Europeans.  The  labour  that  before,  through  carelessness 
and  ignorance,  would  have  been  wasted  in  idleness  or  in  the 
cultivation  of  some  cheap  and  superfluous  crop,  was  to  supply  a 
product  of  great  value  in  the  world-market,  and  the  natives 
were  to  share  in  the  resulting  profits. 

"  The  plan  of  the  culture  system  is  on  its  face  attractive, 
and  the  system  has  been  judged  so  often  by  the  plan  and 


CH.  II]       RELATIONS   OF   PEASANT   TO   LAND   AND   CROPS  153 

professions  of  its  founder  rather  than  by  its  actual  working 
that  it  has  been  the  object  of  pretty  general  and  sometimes 
extravagant  praise. 

"  During  the  period  of  its  working  the  culture  system  was 
applied  to  the  cultivation  of  a  long  list  of  products.  The 
Government  experimented  with  coffee,  sugar,  indigo,  tea,  to- 
bacco, cinnamon,  cochineal,  pepper,  silk,  cotton,  etc.,  and 
dropped  from  the  list  the  products  which  after  an  extended 
trial  gave  no  promise  of  returning  a  profit  to  itself.  From 
the  fiscal  standpoint,  coffee,  sugar,  and  indigo  were  the  only 
products  that  ever  attained  importance." 

In  actual  fact  the  system  soon  developed  into  one  of  forced 
labour,  and  as  it  returned  enormous  profits  to  the  Dutch 
exchequer,  the  whole  system  of  Government  in  Java  became 
organised  to  suit  it.  From  1840  to  1874  the  profits  returned 
to  Holland1  are  supposed  to  have  amounted  to  no  less  than 
781,000,000  florins,  but  there  is  little  doubt  that  had  the 
natives  been  fairly  paid  and  treated  this  profit,  nor  anything 
approaching  it,  could  never  have  been  realised.  One  great 
benefit  it  conferred  upon  Java  was  forcing  the  Government 
to  make  a  splendid  system  of  roads  which  in  themselves 
opened  up  the  country  and  made  markets  accessible.. 

That  it  is  not  impossible  to  apply  compulsory  measures  in 
agriculture,  even  at  the  present  time,  is  of  course  obvious. 
The  rules  in  force  in  several  tropical  countries,  fixing  dates  of 
sowing,  planting,  harvest,  etc.,  are  an  instance.  These  rules, 
however,  are,  like  those  in  force  in  America  and  other  advanced 
countries,  mainly  to  protect  those  engaged  in  agriculture  from 
the  dangers  to  which  they  might  be  exposed  by  the  careless- 
ness, neglect  or  delay  of  their  neighbours. 

It  seems  hardly  feasible,  however,  at  this  period  of  time,  to 
force  an  unwilling  population  to  engage  in  agriculture,  or  to 
alter  their  methods.  What  must  be  done  is  to  make  it  attrac- 
tive, and  to  pass  such  measures  as  may  be  necessary  to  prevent 
waste,  injury  and  neglect. 

Though  naturally  indolent,  the  villager  is  by  no  means 

1  For  the  Dutch  colonies  are  worked  on  a  different  plan  to  the  English,  and 
do  not  get  their  own  revenue  for  their  own  expenditure. 


154  AGRICULTURE   IN   THE   TROPICS  [FT.  Ill 

blind  to  his  own  interests,  and  knows  fairly  well  what  will  pay 
him  best  with  the  least  labour.  He  would  like,  in  many 
countries,  to  engage  in  chena  or  ladang  cultivations,  or  failing 
this  to  cultivate  coconuts  or  other  easily  marketable  crop. 
Even  this  easy  cultivation,  however,  he  is  liable  to  abandon  if 
he  finds  that  he  can  make  money  more  easily  in  other  ways. 
All  this  is  perfectly  natural,  and  a  sound  agricultural  policy 
must  take  account  of  it  and  utilise  it  to  further  the  end  in 
view. 

Let  the  native  be  once  convinced  that  there  is  a  profit  to 
be  made  by  the  cultivation  of  any  particular  crop,  if  not  too 
troublesome  or  costly,  and  he  will  soon  take  it  up ;  witness  the 
large  extent  of  land  formerly  occupied  by  coffee  in  the  Malay 
States  and  Ceylon,  and  that  now  in  rubber  in  the  same  colonies. 

We  may  therefore  say,  let  the  native  grow  what  he  prefers, 
and  encourage  him  in  this  cultivation.  He  will  in  general 
pick  out  coconuts,  vegetables,  and  crops  for  which  he  has  a 
ready  local  market,  and  such  crops  as  he  sees  the  planting 
enterprises  near  him  engaged  with,  and  for  which  he  can  obtain 
a  market  upon  the  planting  estates. 

A  word  in  conclusion  about  chena.  This  is  an  exceedingly 
vicious  ^mode  of  cultivation,  and  wasteful  and  destructive  beyond 
measure.  It  should  be  put  a  stop  to  as  soon  as  possible,  at  any 
rate  on  lands  owned  by  the  Government,  and  experiments  to 
determine  the  best  rotation  of  crops  to  practice  upon  the  chena 
in  private  hands  should  early  be  put  into  practice.  There  is 
little  doubt  that  the  common  contention  of  the  natives,  that 
the  land  is  too  poor  to  stand  continuous  cropping,  is  untrue. 
The  real  reason,  in  many  cases,  at  any  rate,  is  that  in  two  years 
it  gets  too  weedy,  and  that  it  pays  them  better  to  chena  a  new 
piece  of  land. 


155 


CHAPTER  III. 

THE   FINANCING    OF   VILLAGE    AGRICULTURE,    AND 
THE   PROVISION   OF   LOCAL   MARKETS. 

WE  now  come  to  the  next  point,  that  of  finance,  upon  which 
all  the  rest  really  depends.  Agricultural  enterprises,  other 
than  the  very  smallest  villagers'  gardens,  require  some  capital, 
however  small,  to  carry  out  clearing  of  land,  waiting  for  harvest, 
etc.,  and  such  cultivations  as  are  chiefly  taken  up  by  European 
planters,  such  as  tea,  rubber,  sugar,  or  coconuts,  often  require 
very  large  amounts.  The  smaller  the  scale  upon  which  the 
agriculturist  works,  the  more  does  he  live  from  hand  to  mouth, 
and  the  more  likely  is  he  to  need  a  loan  to  carry  him  over  the 
unproductive  period,  or  to  help  him  in  a  season  of  bad  crops. 
The  lower  the  stage  in  this  scale,  too,  the  higher  the  rate  of 
interest,  the  security  being  so  much  the  poorer.  The  general 
result  therefore  is  that  in  most  tropical  countries,  the  villager 
is  largely  in  the  hands  of  the  local  moneylender,  who  charges  a 
rate  of  interest  that  is  rarely  below  50  %. 

This  being  the  state  of  his  financial  affairs,  it  is  of  course 
idle  to  expect  the  villager  to  adopt  agricultural  improvements 
which  cost  anything,  to  try  new  products,  or  in  fact  to  take  any 
risks,  even  though  he  may  know  in  a  general  way  that  the 
expenditure  of  a  penny  may  bring  in  a  shilling. 

Probably  the  most  generally  feasible  scheme  that  has  yet 
been  put  forward  for  freeing  the  villager  from  the  money- 
lender's exactions  is  the  institution  of  Cooperative  Credit 
Societies,  now  so  common  in  Europe  and  North  America,  and 
first  instituted  by  Raiffeisen  in  Wlirtemberg.  Such  societies 


156  AGRICULTURE   IN  THE   TROPICS  [PT.  Ill 

are  DOW  in  operation  at  any  rate  in  India  and  Ceylon,  if  not  in 
other  tropical  countries. 

The  essential  principles  of  the  scheme  are  that  each  society 
is  confined  to  a  village  or  other  community,  all  of  whose 
members  are  of  course  acquainted  with  one  another,  that  the 
funds  are  collected  from  the  members  of  the  society,  each  of 
whom  pays  as  a  rule  a  commencing  subscription,  and  that  the 
liability  is  unlimited.  The  societies,  in  India  at  any  rate,  being 
officially  audited  and  inspected,  their  credit  is  good,  and  they 
are  able  to  lend  to  their  members  (for  outside  loans  are  not 
allowed)  at  low  rates  of  interest,  with  easy  repayment  in  in- 
stalments at  crop  times. 

The  society  is  usually  managed  by  a  committee  (unpaid) 
of  its  own  members,  who  have  control  of  its  funds,  and  lend 
small  sums  to  local  cultivators  for  various  purposes,  when  they 
are  convinced  that  the  said  cultivators  have  the  ability  and  the 
intention  to  repay.  As  the  committee  will  of  course  be  well 
acquainted  with  the  would-be  borrowers,  and  as,  owing  to  the 
unlimited  liability,  all  losses  fall  on  all  the  members  of  the 
society,  great  care  will  naturally  be  taken  to  lend  only  in 
fairly  safe  cases.  This,  incidentally,  has  worked  for  good  in 
the  thousands  of  European  villages  in  which  such  societies  are 
now  at  work,  by  making  the  villagers  careful  of  their  ways  in 
regard  to  drunkenness  and  other  offences.  All  profits  which 
are  made  by  the  society,  after  repayment  of  any  money  it  may 
have  borrowed  at  the  start,  are  returned  to  the  members  in  the 
form  of  dividends,  so  that  the  rate  of  interest  charged,  provided 
only  that  it  is  a  good  deal  lower  than  that  charged  by  the  local 
moneylenders,  does  not  much  matter.  12 J  %  is  the  usual  rate 
in  India. 

In  this  way  the  respectable  peasant  agriculturist  is  able 
to  get  money  at  lower  rates  of  interest  and  on  easier  terms  of 
repayment  than  from  the  mone}  lenders,  while  all  profits  made 
by  the  society,  after  the  commencing  loans  have  been  paid  off, 
come  to  him  in  the  form  of  dividends. 

It  is  obvious  that  in  most  cases  such  a  society,  starting  in 
a  tropical  village,  would  have  to  borrow  some  capital  to  begin 
upon,  otherwise  its  members  would  be  like  the  inhabitants  of 


CH.  Ill]      VILLAGE   AGRICULTURE   AND   LOCAL   MARKETS  157 

the  famous  island  who  eked  out  a  precarious  living  by  taking 
in  one  another's  washing.  This  small  amount  of  capital,  if  it 
cannot  be  got  from  local  capitalists,  might  very  well  be  advanced 
by  the  Government  at  a  low  rate  of  interest.  The  successful 
working  of  any  such  schemes  in  tropical  countries  of  course 
largely  depends  in  any  case  upon  the  warm  support  and  coun- 
tenance of  the  Government  and  its  local  officers. 

An  organisation  perhaps  even  better  for  the  majority  of 
tropical  villagers  than  the  Cooperative  Credit  Society,  at  least 
for  a  start,  is  the  Cooperative  Seed  Supply  Store,  which  is 
already  in  operation  in  several  places  in  Ceylon.  A  small  store 
of  good  rice  or  other  seed  is  opened  at  headquarters,  by  the 
assistance  of  local  capitalists,  or  of  the  Government,  and  from 
this  store  the  villagers  can  get  their  seed  rice  at  an  interest  of 
say  12  J  %,  paid  in  kind  at  harvest  time.  There  is  no  need  in 
such  a  case  for  the  villagers  at  first  to  be  actual  shareholders  in 
the  concern,  and  by  the  time  that  it  has  repaid  its  commencing 
loans,  they  will  have  come  to  trust  it,  and  to  join  in  it  definitely. 
Such  a  store  should  at  first  confine  its  operations  to  rice,  or 
whatever  may  be  the  staple  crop  of  the  district,  but  as  time 
goes  on,  and  the  villagers  come  to  support  it,  it  may  go  in  for 
other  crops  also,  and  instead  of  issuing  the  local  rice  again  in 
the  following  year,  may  take  to  getting  better  qualities  of  rice 
and  other  things  from  elsewhere. 

Following  the  Credit  Societies,  or  the  Seed  Supply  Stores, 
some  more  ambitious  scheme  of  Agricultural  Banks,  say  on  the 
lines  of  the  Credit  Foncier  of  France,  may  be  put  into  operation, 
and  will  benefit  the  small  village  capitalist,  but  as  yet  it  would 
seem  too  early  for  any  such  scheme  to  be  tried  with  much 
chance  of  success  in  a  tropical  village. 

Similarly,  organisations  for  the  purchase  of  the  manure  or 
other  things  required  in  a  village  may  be  commenced.  The 
local  agricultural  society  at  Baddegama  in  Ceylon,  for  instance, 
has  organised  the  purchase  of  manure  from  one  of  the  large 
Colombo  firms,  first  of  all  finding  out  how  much  each  villager 
will  require,  and  then  ordering  the  whole  amount  in  bulk  and 
distributing  it  to  the  villagers  at  the  actual  cost  of  purchase 
and  transport.  In  this  way  the  villagers  have  got  a  very  much 


158  AGRICULTURE    IN  THE   TROPICS  [PT.  Ill 

better  quality  of  manure.  An  unexpected  difficulty  has  cropped 
up  in  connection  with  this  scheme,  the  local  vendors  of  manure 
adulterating  theirs  so  much  that  they  can  sell  it  a  good  deal 
cheaper  than  the  pure  stuff  supplied  by  the  society.  In  a  case 
like  this  the  only  thing  to  be  done  is  to  show  that  the  good 
manure  gives  much  better  results,  or  to  adulterate  it  to  such 
an  extent  with  sand  or  something  harmless  that  it  can  be  sold 
at  the  same  rate  as  the  worse  adulterated  stuff  sold  by  the  local 
people. 

Having  got  over  the  difficulty  of  the  want  of  cash  for  the 
commencement  of  agricultural  operations,  we  must  now  work 
at  the  other  end  of  the  problem,  and  consider  the  question  of 
supply  of  a  market  to  the  villager  for  his  produce.  In  the  case 
of  rice  or  other  staples  of  long  standing  there  is  as  a  rule  a  good 
enough  local  market,  through  travelling  middlemen  or  otherwise, 
for  any  that  the  peasant  may  have  to  sell  after  supplying  his 
own  wants,  but  in  the  case  of  other  things,  more  especially 
anything  that  may  be  new  in  the  district,  a  market  must  be 
supplied,  or  the  villager  will  not  have  gained  anything.  He 
should  if  possible  be  kept  out  of  the  hands  of  the  travelling 
middlemen,  for  of  course,  being  entirely  ignorant  of  market 
fluctuations,  he  is  to  a  large  extent  helpless  in  their  hands. 
One  of  the  first  matters  to  be  attended  to,  therefore,  if  the 
cultivation  of  vegetables  or  other  things  of  local  consumption  is 
to  be  encouraged,  is  the  provision  of  local  markets  within  easy 
reach  of  the  villagers.  Along  the  coast  of  Ceylon,  for  instance, 
there  are  such  markets  at  every  few  miles,  in  the  larger  villages 
near  the  seaboard,  where  the  fishing  community,  who  do  not 
grow  vegetables  etc.  for  themselves,  can  purchase  the  produc- 
tions of  the  interior  villages.  If  the  population  in  a  district 
is  too  small,  or  too  entirely  engaged  in  agriculture  for  the 
establishment  of  such  a  market  to  have  much  likelihood  of 
success,  then  the  encouragement  of  the  cultivation  of  produce 
for  which  the  demand  must  be  local  will  be  of  little  use  unless 
some  scheme  of  the  nature  of  a  cooperative  selling  association 
can  be  also  established.  Such  an  association  for  instance  is  in 
operation  at  Vavuniya,  in  the  north  of  Ceylon,  where  there  is 
also  no  local  market  at  all  among  the  very  small  population. 


CH.  Ill]      VILLAGE   AGRICULTURE   AND  LOCAL  MARKETS  159 

It  collects  produce  from  the  villagers,  and  forwards  it  fortnightly 
to  Colombo,  where  it  is  sold  by  auction  in  the  local  market, 
and  realises  better  prices,  even  after  the  payment  of  all  costs 
of  collection  and  transport,  than  it  could  have  realised  in 
Vavuniya. 

The  next  question  to  be  dealt  with  is  the  provision  of  a 
market  for  any  "export"  produce  that  may  be  grown  by  the 
villager,  for  it  is  obvious  that  he  cannot  export  it  himself,  being 
unable  to  wait  so  long  for  his  monetary  return,  even  if  he  could 
export  enough  to  be  worth  while.  In  the  case  of  such  products 
as  coconuts,  he  can  sell  them  readily  enough  to  the  local  travelling 
middlemen,  but  in  this  way  he  gets  a  very  small  return,  and 
some  more  profitable  system  seems  desirable,  while  in  the  case 
of  such  a  product  as  tea  or  rubber,  there  are  no  middlemen  who 
purchase  such  things. 

It  has  been  suggested  that  the  Government  should  subsidise 
capitalists  to  open  factories  for  the  produce  of  the  country,  and 
buy  up  at  fixed  prices,  paid  in  cash,  all  produce  grown  in  the 
district  by  the  villagers.  This  scheme  is  practically  the  Java 
culture  system  over  again,  with  the  compulsion  left  out,  and 
would  be  liable  to  failure  at  starting,  for  the  native  would  not 
grow  till  he  saw  a  certain  market,  while  the  factory  owner 
would  not  start  till  he  saw  a  certainty  of  grist  for  the  mill. 
If  such  a  scheme  is  put  into  operation,  therefore,  it  should 
be  in  a  district  where  there  are  already  planters  growing  the 
particular  crop  to  be  dealt  with,  and  their  factories  might  then 
be  subsidised,  if  necessary,  to  buy  the  produce  of  the  villagers. 

The  villager  in  general  turns  out  a  poor  grade  of  article,  as 
well  as  a  poor  yield,  and  the  markets  of  the  north  do  not  want 
poor  grades.  It  follows  therefore  that  the  villager  should  be 
encouraged  chiefly  in  the  cultivation  of  the  products  in  which 
he  is  able  to  turn  out  a  good  grade,  such  for  instance  as  coco- 
nuts, while  other  products  should  only  be  introduced  as  he 
learns  to  handle  them,  unless  they  be  such  as  rubber,  in  which 
he  can  sell  the  milk  to  the  factory,  which  can  then  work  it  up 
into  as  good  a  grade  of  rubber  as  it  prepares  from  its  own  milk. 
He  should  not,  so  to  speak,  be  turned  loose  on  such  a  product 
as  cotton,  which  requires  careful  selection  of  the  seed  in  every 


160  AGRICULTURE   IN   THE   TROPICS  [PT.  Ill 

generation  to  keep  up  the  quality,  unless  at  the  same  time 
an  officer  of  the  Government  be  appointed  to  attend  to  seed 
selection,  as  is  done  in  Egypt  and  the  West  Indies. 

Capitalist  planters  are  often  strenuously  opposed  to  the 
encouragement  of  villagers  in  growing  "export"  products,  for 
they  steal  from  the  large  plantations,  and  use  their  own  few 
trees  as  a  blind.  But  this  difficulty  can  be  got  over  by  more 
stringent  legislation,  especially  by  licensing  all  dealers. 


161 


CHAPTER  IV. 

THE    CROPS   AND    METHODS    OF   PEASANT  AGRICUL- 
TURE, AND  THEIR  POSSIBILITIES  OF  IMPROVEMENT. 

WE  must  now  pass  on  to  consider  village  agriculture  proper, 
its  crops  and  methods,  and  their  possibilities  of  improvement. 
Without  the  provision  of  capital  there  is  little  possibility  in 
this  direction ;  the  villager  cannot  afford  to  try  experiments, 
nor  even  to  adopt  an  improved  crop  or  method,  if  any  monetary 
outlay  is  required.  Though  he  may  know  that  an  expenditure 
of  a  penny  will  bring  a  shilling,  he  must  first  have  the  penny. 
Experimental  gardens  and  other  similar  methods  of  work  for 
improvement  of  agriculture  and  horticulture  can  do  little  or 
nothing  for  the  poorer  villager  until  this  primary  difficulty  is 
got  over.  They  may  introduce  or  breed  much  better  varieties 
of  plants  than  those  the  local  people  use,  but  the  latter  cannot 
afford  to  buy  them.  If  the  Government  give  them  freely  they 
seem  to  be  undervalued.  A  common  experience  in  the  East  is 
to  give  good  seed  to  a  villager  and  then  to  find  that  he  has 
eaten  it  in  his  curry  or  sown  it  somewhere  that  it  has  no 
chance  of  success. 

One  great  mistake  that  is  often  made  in  endeavouring  to 
introduce  improvement  in  agricultural  crops  or  methods  is 
trying  to  go  too  fast.  Evolution  works  by  almost  indefinitely 
small  steps.  Agriculturists,  especially  natives  of  the  tropics, 
are  about  the  most  conservative  of  mankind.  Great  harm  has 
been  done  to  the  cause  of  true  scientific  progress  by  enthusiasts 
anxious  to  go  rapidly,  forgetting  that  the  gap  between  the 
native  and  the  European  is  to  be  measured  in  centuries. 
Similar  unsound  ideas  have  been  at  the  root  of  the  ruin  of 
w.  11 


162  AGRICULTURE   IN   THE   TROPICS  [Ff.  Ill 

many  well-considered  schemes  for  agricultural  improvement 
also.  Instead  of  fixing  upon  a  definite  system,  and  adhering 
to  it  steadfastly  for  long  periods  till  it  has  had  a  chance  of 
showing  results,  we  treat  it  only  too  often  like  children  treat 
the  plants  in  their  gardens,  digging  them  up  at  frequent 
intervals  to  see  how  they  are  getting  on,  and  soon  throwing 
them  away  because  they  have  not  grown  unnaturally  quickly 
to  suit  their  wishes. 

When  we  take  a  survey  of  native  agriculture  as  a  whole, 
it  is  easy  to  see  that  there  are  many  points  in  which  im- 
provement is  possible.  Such  are  (1)  the  variety  of  products 
cultivated;  (2)  the  kinds  or  varieties  of  particular  crops  cultivated; 
(3)  the  methods  of  cultivation ;  (4)  the  cleanliness  of  cultivation 
and  freedom  from  weeds  and  disease ;  (5)  the  preparation  of 
the  produce  for  sale ;  (6)  the  breed  and  quality  of  the  stock  ; 
and  so  on.  There  cannot  be  the  least  doubt  that  all  these  are 
capable  of  vast  improvement,  though  one  still  at  times  hears 
the  contrary  stated  with  regard  to  at  least  (3).  Speaking 
broadly,  native  agriculture  is  wasteful  and  inefficient,  and 
urgently  needs  improvement.  But,  and  this  is  a  point  of  the 
most  vital  and  essential  nature,  we  must  go  slowly,  and  be 
quite  sure  what  we  are  doing,  or  we  shall  do  more  harm  than 
good.  The  proper  course  is  to  find  out  first  of  all  the  actual 
facts  of  native  knowledge  in  all  agricultural  matters,  and  then 
to  work  from  these — or,  in  other  words,  to  apply  the  methods 
of  pure  scientific  research  and  induction.  The  science  of 
agriculture  is  yet  largely  in  an  embryonic  condition,  and  its 
generalisations  are  almost  entirely  based  (as  in  the  case  of 
other  biological  sciences)  upon  work  done  in  the  totally  different 
climates  of  Europe  and  North  America.  To  apply  these  directly 
to  tropical  conditions  is  often  to  court  failure.  We  must  begin 
again,  using  the  results  of  temperate-zone  work  as  a  guide,  and 
collect  facts  patiently,  group  them,  make  inductions  from  them, 
and  test  these  again,  until  we  have  built  up  a  sound  science  of 
tropical  agriculture.  Scientific  agriculture  in  the  north  has  now 
overtaken  the  empirical  knowledge  of  generations  of  farmers  in 
many  departments,  and  explained  it,  using  the  generalisations 
thus  obtained  to  deduce  further  rules  of  action,  but  this  is  by 


CH.  IV]       CROPS  AND  METHODS  OF  PEASANT  AGRICULTURE       163 

no  means  yet  the  case  in  the  tropics.  We  must  first  learn  all 
the  facts  that  village  agriculturists,  planters,  and  others  have 
learnt,  and  then  use  these  as  a  basis  for  further  work.  Not 
merely  must  we  learn  the  facts,  but  we  must  find  out  the 
"why"  of  them.  Why,  for  instance,  does  the  Sinhalese  villager 
manure  betel-pepper  only  with  the  leaves  of  Groton  lacciferum, 
and  refuse  to  employ  another  manure  apparently  as  good  or 
better  ?  He  himself  does  not  know,  but  we  must  find  out,  and 
perhaps  in  so  doing  we  shall  find  some  valuable  knowledge 
throwing  light  on  other  problems  as  well  as  on  manuring. 

To  deal  in  order  with  the  points  in  which  improvement  is 
required,  the  first  is  the  variety  of  crops  cultivated.  There  is 
a  want  of  variety  in  village  cultivations,  and  "  new  products  " 
are  desirable  in  many  places,  to  avoid  the  risk  of  having  too 
many  eggs  in  one  basket,  to  lessen  the  risk  of  epidemic  disease, 
and  to  increase  the  variety  of  products  available  in  the  local 
market,  and  thus  help  in  raising  the  general  standard  of  living. 
But  to  introduce  and  establish  these  new  products  involves 
many  considerations.  They  must  be  shown  to  grow  well  in  the 
district,  to  be  easy  of  cultivation,  and  to  yield  greater  profit  or 
better  food  than  those  things  that  are  already  in  cultivation 
there,  or  at  least  as  much.  There  must  also  be  a  reliable 
market  for  them.  In  effect  therefore,  each  product  wants  full 
and  careful  experiment  in  each  district.  To  have  an  Experi- 
mental Garden  in  each  district  is  almost  beyond  possibility ; 
the  cost  would  be  too  large  in  comparison  with  the  result  to 
be  hoped  for.  But  an  experimental  garden  on  a  scale  suited 
to  each  village  can  easily  be  provided  in  the  schools,  and  the 
school  garden  scheme  outlined  in  another  chapter  is  recom- 
mended on  this  ground  alone,  apart  from  other  advantages. 
A  preliminary  investigation  is  required  to  find  out  exactly 
what  products  are  already  cultivated  in  the  district,  and  then 
the  garden  should  be  supplied  with  others  not  yet  familiar  to 
the  local  villagers.  In  this  way  it  can  be  tested  whether  the 
particular  plants  will  grow  well  in  that  district,  and  what  kind 
of  market  or  domestic  use  there  is  for  the  produce.  The 
villagers  will  see  the  plants  for  themselves,  and  be  able  to  get 
a  few  for  trial,  and  gradually  those  that  prove  desirable  will 

11—2 


164  AGRICULTURE  IN  THE   TROPICS  [PT.  Ill 

come  into  local  use.  In  Ceylon  the  school  gardens  have  already 
introduced  a  considerable  number  of  new  products  into  the 
villages  at  a  minimum  of  cost.  The  products  thus  introduced 
are  those  likely  to  prove  really  suitable,  and  will  not  be  thrown 
away  again  or  neglected,  as  so  often  happens  when  a  plant  is 
distributed  by  Government  officers,  perhaps  without  any  previous 
tests  as  to  its  suitability. 

It  would  therefore  seem  that  by  the  intermingling  of  village 
and  estate  agriculture,  whereby  the  villagers  will  have  large 
practical  object  lessons  at  their  door,  and  by  the  institution  of 
school  gardens  on  the  lines  indicated,  the  introduction  of  new 
products  will  be  sufficiently  furthered,  provided  that  the  pro- 
vision of  cheap  capital  has  been  attended  to.  Without  this  the 
only  result  will  be  to  add  a  few  more  ill-kept  plants  to  the 
wilderness  of  the  average  village  garden.  Even  this,  however, 
is  something  to  have  gained. 

The  next  point  for  improvement  is  the  varieties  of  the 
particular  crops  grown.  Most  of  the  native  fruits,  for  example, 
are  capable  of  improvement,  and  the  same  is  true  of  the 
vegetables,  and  even  of  crops  like  rice  or  coconuts.  This 
subject  is  elsewhere  dealt  with  from  another  point  of  view. 
The  question  here  is  how  to  introduce  the  better  kinds  when 
we  have  got  them  and  when  we  have  also — and  this  is  very 
important — assured  ourselves  that  they  still  remain  better 
when  grown  in  the  villagers'  gardens  or  fields  by  their  local 
methods. 

The  majority  of  improved  strains  of  field  crops,  such  as  rice 
or  cotton,  have  been  obtained  by  continual  selection  of  seed 
from  the  best  parents,  and  they  can  only  be  kept  up  to  their 
high  standard  by  continual  repetition  of  this  process  in  every 
generation.  Treated  as  they  are  sure  to  be  treated  in  village 
agriculture,  they  will  rapidly  deteriorate,  and  in  two  or  three 
generations  at  most  be  as  poor  as  any  village  crop,  or  as  the 
original  strain  from  which  they  started.  Non-recognition  of 
this  fact  is  at  the  bottom  of  a  great  number  of  failures  of  well- 
meant  endeavours  to  improve  the  village  crops  in  eastern 
countries.  "Good  seed"  is  introduced  at  considerable  expense 
from  Europe,  but  in  a  short  time  all  trace  of  it  has  gone  for 


CH.  IV]       CROPS  AND  METHODS  OF  PEASANT  AGRICULTURE        165 

want  of  selection.  If  even  educated  Europeans  with  special 
taste  for  gardening  cannot  be  induced  to  select  seed  from  the 
best  parents,  we  cannot  expect  that  the  villager  will  do  so.  If 
improvement  of  the  quality  of  local  strains  is  to  be  made  by 
selection,  then  some  such  method  as  that  which  is,  we  believe, 
in  force  in  some  places  must  be  used.  Seed-parent  plants  are 
marked  by  Government  inspectors,  and  their  seed  separately 
collected  by  the  Government,  and  paid  for.  The  cultivators 
have  to  save  their  own  seed  and  exchange  it  against  the 
Government  supply.  In  this  way  only  good  seed  is  used. 

Another  way  of  attaining  the  same  end  would  be  the 
establishment  of  definite  seed  gardens  at  suitable  places,  where 
the  breeding  of  improved  varieties  could  be  carried  on,  and 
seed  produced  in  large  quantities.  These  seeds,  whose  value 
would  then  be  accurately  known,  could  be  exchanged  against 
the  villagers'  seed,  and  the  latter  sold  in  the  ordinary  market 
in  partial  repayment  of  the  expense  incurred.  Without  some 
such  system  as  this,  carried  out  over  long  periods  upon  a 
definite  plan,  it  is  idle  to  expect  any  improvement  in  village  crops 
so  far  as  varieties  grown  are  concerned,  except  in  cases  where 
one  can  introduce  a  "fixed"  strain,  such  as  many  "gardeners' 
varieties"  represent,  which  will  not  seriously  deteriorate  under 
village  methods  of  cultivation,  being  independent  of  selection 
for  the  retention  of  its  peculiar  excellences,  though  selection  will 
always  improve  these.  It  is  well,  however,  to  point  out  that 
such  varieties  are  rare  in  field  crops. 

In  the  last  few  years  enormous  advances  have  been  made 
in  the  science  of  plant  breeding,  and  by  the  careful  application 
of  the  principles  first  enunciated  by  Mendel  we  are  able  to 
produce  more  certain  results  in  much  less  time. 

Breeding  has  been  but  little  practised  in  the  tropics.  While 
the  cultivated  plants  of  the  colder  zones  are  often  incapable 
of  surviving  if  left  to  themselves  in  competition  with  the  wild 
vegetation,  this  is  but  rarely  the  case  in  the  tropics. 

There  is  every  reason  to  hope  that  by  skilled  scientific 
work  great  progress  may  be  made  in  the  improvement  of 
tropical  crops,  and  that  within  a  reasonable  time.  But  there 
are  many  difficulties  in  the  way.  One,  for  instance,  is  that 


166  AGRICULTURE   IN   THE   TROPICS  [PT.  Ill 

so  many  crops  are  perennials,  and  do  not  generally  flower  for 
some  years.  Not  only,  therefore,  is  there  a  long  time  between 
each  two  generations,  but  the  cultivator  will  not  root  out 
established  plants  to  make  room  for  better  oues. 

If  this  line  of  work  is  to  become,  as  all  present  indications 
point  to  its  becoming,  one  of  the  most  important  duties  of  a 
tropical  agricultural  department,  it  will  obviously  be  necessary 
to  have  proper  seed-producing  gardens,  fully  equipped  with 
trained  breeders  and  all  necessary  fittings,  from  which  seed 
can  be  supplied  to  the  cultivators.  And  this  the  more  especially 
at  first,  because  the  improved  kinds  will  cross  with  the  inferior 
kinds  cultivated  round  about,  and  the  resulting  seed  be  con- 
sequently inferior. 

In  many  cases,  of  course,  it  is  possible  that  varieties  better 
suited  to  local  conditions  may  be  obtained  from  other  countries, 
and  this  is  especially  probable  in  a  country  where  local  agri- 
culture is  backward.  This  sort  of  work  is  of  course  one  which 
should  be  attended  to  in  Experimental  Gardens,  but  the  trials 
should  be  on  a  commercial  scale,  should  be  thoroughly  thought 
out  in  advance,  and  should  deal  only  with  one  or  two  things  at 
a  time.  Local  varieties  should  of  course  be  tested  against  the 
introduced  ones,  under  as  many  conditions  as  possible.  Once 
the  Experimental  Garden  has  shown  the  probability  that  a 
certain  variety,  whether  introduced  from  abroad  or  bred  in 
the  garden,  is  apparently  an  improvement  upon  the  local  ones, 
further  tests  as  to  its  suitability  may  be  made  through  the 
school  gardens,  and  if  it  pass  successfully  through  these,  it  may 
then  be  safely  recommended  to  the  villagers. 

It  is  of  very  great  importance  in  dealing  with  eastern 
natives  to  be  quite  sure  of  the  result  before  recommending 
any  action  to  them,  especially  in  matters  of  agriculture.  Even 
when  we  have  shown  that  a  particular  variety  of  some  locally 
cultivated  crop  is  superior  in  quality  and  yield  to  the  native 
forms,  it  may  not  be  easy  to  get  the  villager  to  adopt  it, 
prejudices  or  customs  standing  in  the  way.  An  amusing 
illustration  has  lately  been  afforded  in  Ceylon.  The  variety 
of  Indian  corn  locally  grown  is  what  is  technically  known  as 
a  "flint"  corn,  with  rounded  ends  to  the  grains.  This  was 


CH.  IV]      CROPS  AND  METHODS  OF  PEASANT  AGRICULTURE        167 

crossed  at  Peradeniya  with  imported  American  corns  of  fine 
kinds,  most  of  which  belong  to  the  "dent"  type,  with  dimples 
in  the  outer  ends  of  the  grains  as  seen  upon  the  cob.  The 
hybrids  are  superior  to  the  native  corn  in  quality  and  yield, 
but  are  objected  to  by  the  villagers  on  account  of  the  dent, 
which  they  say  indicates  unripeness.  A  still  more  remarkable 
case  is  furnished  by  the  history  of  the  West  Indian  vegetable, 
the  chocho,  in  Ceylon.  Introduced  years  ago  by  the  Botanic 
Gardens,  this  most  useful  vegetable  spread  widely  in  the 
villages,  and  was  much  appreciated.  A  few  years  later,  a 
rumour  was  started  among  the  natives  (probably  owing  to  some 
coincidence  of  serious  illness  with  the  fact  that  the  patient  was 
a  great  consumer  of  chochos)  that  chochos  produced  rheumatism. 
This  was  sufficient,  and  the  cultivation  of  this  vegetable  is  now 
extinct. 

For  products  that  are  already  well  established  in  the 
villages,  one  of  the  best  ways  of  ensuring  the  use  of  good  seed 
is  by  means  of  a  cooperative  seed  supply  (already  mentioned 
above  in  discussing  provision  of  capital).  Cooperation  is  ex- 
cellent in  agriculture,  and  the  reason  that  the  continental 
agriculturists  of  Europe  are  probably  more  prosperous  than 
their  British  colleagues  is  mainly  that  they  have  gone  in 
largely  for  cooperation.  A  cooperative  seed  supply  is  in  many 
ways  better  for  a  tropical  village  than  a  cooperative  credit 
society.  In  the  east  it  will  of  course  be  mainly  concerned 
with  rice.  Let  the  villagers  join  such  a  society,  they  will  then 
be  able  to  get  their  seed  rice  from  it  at  an  interest  of  say  12^ 
to  25  per  cent,  (the  extra  rate  does  not  matter,  as  already 
explained,  for  the  profits  go  to  the  members,  and  in  any  case 
it  is  far  cheaper  than  the  money  lender)  to  be  repaid  in  crop 
time.  This  alone  is  a  very  great  step  in  advance,  but  let  the 
society  also  get  the  very  best  seed,  and  it  may  effect  a  gradual 
improvement  of  the  crops  grown  in  the  district.  Let  it  be  first 
determined  what  is  the  best  seed  for  that  particular  district, 
and  then  let  the  society  sell  the  rice  brought  in  to  it  in 
repayment  of  advances,  and  with  the  proceeds  buy  enough  of 
the  better  seed  to  sow  in  the  district  next  season.  It  is  true 
that  in  this  way  the  society  will  have  less  of  profit  to  divide 


168  AGRICULTURE   IN   THE   TROPICS  [PT.  Ill 

among  its  members,  but  they  will  get  increased  profit  from  the 
better  crops. 

A  society  starting  upon  these  lines  should  of  course  attend 
at  first  to  rice,  or  coconuts,  or  whatever  may  be  the  principal 
crops  of  the  district,  but  once  the  society  is  well  upon  its  legs, 
and  the  villagers  have  come  to  believe  in  it,  and  not  to  think 
it  some  ingenious  mechanism  for  defrauding  them,  it  may  begin 
to  get  seed  of  the  less  familiar  crops — perhaps  from  the  larger 
experimental  gardens  kept  up  by  the  Government — and  to 
distribute  these.  There  are  also  special  cases  in  which  it 
might,  in  cooperation  with  other  societies,  obtain  seeds  from 
Europe  or  from  other  countries. 

The  next  point  to  be  considered  is  the  possibility  of  im- 
proving native  methods  in  agriculture.  There  can  be  no  doubt 
that  such  improvement  is  possible,  but  it  is  above  all  important 
to  know  exactly  what  we  are  doing,  and  to  recommend  no 
method  without  being  certain  of  its  superiority.  Agriculture 
is  a  complex  art,  and  a  change  in  any  one  item  of  a  process  of 
cultivation  may  bring  entirely  unforeseen  and  possibly  disastrous 
changes  in  other  items  in  its  train,  as  was  instanced  on  p.  47. 

Another  formidable  obstacle  to  any  change  in  methods  is 
custom.  The  tropical  native  is  usually  conservative,  and  objects 
to  any  interference  with  his  time-honoured  ways.  Thus,  for 
example,  among  the  Javanese  and  the  Malays,  one  may  see 
side  by  side  the  advanced  methods  of  transplanting  the  rice, 
and  rotating  the  crop  with  others,  and  the  inefficient  method 
of  harvesting  it  by  cutting  each  ear  separately.  Yet  this  is 
tenaciously  adhered  to,  because  the  harvest  time  is  the  great 
festive  season,  when  all  the  young  folk  turn  out  into  the  fields, 
and  engagements  are  mainly  contracted.  In  some  parts  of 
Southern  India  the  ryots  plant  their  cotton  with  a  drill,  in 
rows;  in  others  they  plant  it  by  broadcast  sowing,  getting  a 
less  return  from  more  seed  and  labour.  If  a  ryot  in  the  latter 
districts  be  questioned,  he  will  often  admit  that  the  former 
method  is  the  better,  but  "  it  is  not  the  custom  "  is  his  reply  to 
the  natural  enquiry  why  he  does  not  adopt  it. 

Another  great  obstacle  is  the  indolence  of  the  peasant.  He 
may  know  quite  well  that  a  particular  method  is  better  than 


CH.  IV]      CROPS  AND  METHODS  OP  PEASANT  AGRICULTURE        169 


his  own,  and  that  it  will  cost  him  nothing  to  adopt  it,  but  if  it 
involve  more  labour  than  the  one  in  use,  or  an  unaccustomed 
form  of  labour,  then  he  will  often  have  none  of  it.  This  has 
been  the  great  stumbling  block  in  the  introduction  of  trans- 
planting of  rice  in  Ceylon. 

Other  great  obstacles  are  poverty  and  ignorance,  both  of 
which  are  dealt  with  in  special  chapters. 

There  are  innumerable  directions  in  which  native  methods 
can  be  improved,  but  very  careful  study  is  required,  as  explained 
above.  To  take  a  few  illustrations  and  suggestions. 

The  tillage  of  the  ground  is  by  rude  implements  and  by  a 
great  expenditure  of  physical  labour  in  proportion  to  the  result 
achieved.  A  great  improvement  is  probably  possible  by  the 
aid  of  labour-saving  methods  and  implements.  This  is  evident 
enough,  and  many  well-meant  endeavours  have  been  made  to 
introduce  such  tools.  The  mistake  has  been  to  try  to  make 
too  large  a  step  at  once.  The  most  modern  machinery  has  been 
introduced  directly.  Of  course  the  villager  does  not  understand 
it  properly,  he  cannot  repair  it  if  anything  goes  wrong,  he 
cannot  afford  to  buy  it,  and  in  many  other  ways  it  is  unsuited 
to  local  conditions.  The  proper  way  of  progress  is  the  scientific 
one.  The  local  tool  should  be  carefully  studied  and  compared 
with  other  tools  of  similar  nature  or  used  for  similar  purposes, 
and  then,  when  the  principle  of  the  whole  subject  is  under- 
stood, the  local  tool  should  be  modified  slightly  in  the  desired 
direction,  so  slightly  that  the  villager  need  not  have  his  pre- 
judices offended,  nor  find  anything  that  he  cannot  understand 
or  repair  in  the  new  instrument.  Further,  the  cost  should  not 
be  appreciably  increased.  Each  improvement  in  the  tool  should 
be  most  carefully  tested  by  comparative  trials  against  the  old 
tool,  before  it  is  publicly  introduced  or  recommended.  The 
very  best  tools  and  machinery  for  each  purpose  should  of  course 
be  imported  from  America  and  elsewhere  for  local  trial,  in  order 
to  find  out  the  principles  on  which  advance  has  been  made,  and 
what  are  the  difficulties  attending  the  use  of  such  tools  or 
machinery  in  the  country. 

Weeding  is  another  direction  in  which  native  agriculture 


170  AGRICULTURE   IN   THE   TROPICS  [PT.  Ill 

appears  capable  of  improvement.  The  native  usually  knows 
well  enough  that  weeding  gives  a  better  crop,  but  he  does  not 
always  consider  the  result  worth  the  labour.  If  some  simpler 
and  easier  method  of  weeding  could  be  introduced,  say  by 
the  use  of  a  tool  like  the  American  roller  hoe,  or  like  the 
"cultivator,"  it  might  be  possible  to  encourage  weeding,  and 
thus  get  an  increased  crop  in  many  cultivations.  It  is  idle 
to  tell  the  native  to  weed,  or  to  teach  him  theoretically  that 
weeding  is  good ;  he  must  be  shown  that  it  pays,  without 
costing  more  money  or  labour  than  he  can  afford,  or  than  he 
is  willing  to  give. 

A  conspicuous  feature  in  native  agriculture  throughout 
southern  Asia,  which  often  offends  the  eye  of  those  who  have 
a  superficial  acquaintance  with  European  agriculture,  is  the 
wild  jungle-like  mixture  of  fruit  trees,  bamboos,  vegetables, 
etc.,  which  forms  the  average  native  garden.  As  pointed  out 
above,  it  is  highly  probable  that  this  arrangement  gives  many 
of  the  advantages  which  have  elsewhere  to  be  attained  by 
rotation  of  crops,  and  the  villager  is  thus  able  to  grow  his 
familiar  foods,  etc.,  on  the  same  ground  for  an  indefinite  number 
of  years.  Mixture  of  crops,  as  well  as  rotation,  require  very 
careful  study  in  detail  before  any  hasty  attempt  is  made  to 
change  immemorial  custom. 

The  treatment  of  the  individual  trees,  or  of  the  crop  plants, 
on  the  other  hand,  is  probably  capable  of  a  good  deal  of  im- 
provement without  such  great  difficulty.  If  the  villager  knew 
how  to  graft  and  bud,  he  might  have  his  fruit  trees  improved 
by  introducing  new  varieties.  His  methods  of  sowing  broad- 
cast are  probably  often  capable  of  being  improved  to  the  saving 
of  seed.  He  might  very  well  learn  the  advantages  of  regular 
pruning  of  fruit  trees  on  definite  principles,  of  selection  of  good 
parents  for  seed,  of  better  methods  of  propagation,  of  sound 
systems  of  manuring,  and  many  other  such  things.  But  the 
motto  must  always  be  festina  lente,  and  every  step  proposed 
must  first  be  very  carefully  tested. 

The  next  point  to  be  considered  is  improvement  in  cleanli- 
ness of  cultivation  and  freedom  from  disease.  The  mixed 


CH.  IV]      CROPS  AND  METHODS  OF  PEASANT  AGRICULTURE        171 

cultivation  above  described  is  of  course  a  considerable  safe- 
guard against  disease  spreading  rapidly  over  a  large  area,  but 
on  the  other  hand  is  accompanied  by  a  very  small  return.  The 
peasant  who  cultivates  such  a  product  as  tobacco  is  often  very 
careful  to  keep  his  plants  free  of  any  sign  of  disease  or  weeds, 
but  the  average  tropical  native  has  much  to  learn  in  this 
respect.  A  little  compulsion,  as  is  for  instance  employed  in 
Ceylon  under  the  Pests  Ordinance,  is  a  very  good  thing. 

The  fifth  point  mentioned  above  for  consideration  was  the 
possibility  of  improving  native  methods  of  preparing  produce 
for  market.  As  a  rule,  native  produce  is  of  inferior  grade  to 
that  prepared  by  European  planters.  This  is  partly,  of  course, 
the  result  of  bad  cultivation,  especially  of  want  of  proper  feeding 
of  the  plants,  but  it  is  also  due  to  ignorance,  indolence,  or 
carelessness  in  treating  the  product  after  it  is  harvested.  The 
question  of  improvement  is  thus  on  all  fours  with  that  of 
improvement  of  methods  of  cultivation  dealt  with  above.  The 
fact  that  even  with  the  object  lessons  of  European  estates 
before  them,  and  with  the  practical  lesson  of  lower  market 
prices  obtained,  natives  do  not  improve  their  methods,  shows 
how  difficult  it  is  to  do  much  in  this  direction.  Fortunately, 
the  natives  of  any  one  country  are  often  willing  enough  to  use 
the  inferior  articles  grown  there,  and  it  thus  comes  about  that 
the  encouragement  of  export  trade  among  peasants  should  at 
first  be  directed  mainly  towards  export  from  the  village.  As 
they  improve  in  their  methods,  and  as  cooperation  comes  in, 
the  villagers  may  export  further,  but  at  first  the  export  trade 
to  the  countries  of  the  north  is  best  left  in  the  hands  of 
capitalists,  except  in  the  case  of  those  products,  such  as  rice, 
that  the  peasant  properly  understands. 

The  sixth  point  mentioned  was  the  improvement  of  the 
breed  and  quality  of  the  cattle  and  other  stock  kept  by  the 
peasant.  This  has  already  been  fully  considered  in  the  chapter 
on  stock  in  Part  II,  and  only  needs  mention  here.  The  villager 
needs  to  be  taught  to  avoid  indiscriminate  crossing,  to  select 
the  best  stock  for  parents,  to  castrate  on  better  and  more 
humane  principles,  and  so  on.  At  the  same  time  crosses  with 


172  AGRICULTURE   IN   THE  TROPICS  [PT.  Ill 

other  breeds  may  at  times  be  provided  for  him,  when  it  has 
been  quite  settled  .what  are  the  best,  by  establishing  bulls, 
stallions,  cocks,  etc.,  in  the  villages  for  short  periods.  One 
great  point  to  remember  is,  as  already  pointed  out,  to  let  the 
improvement  of  the  stock  keep  pace  with  that  of  the  food. 

To  sum  up,  then,  it  would  appear  that  the  first  requisite 
is  to  avoid  hasty  action,  and  to  make  a  careful  study  of  that 
which  we  want  to  improve,  of  tools,  crops,  methods,  etc.,  and 
to  find  out  all  that  the  villager  already  knows  from  accumulated 
experience.  All  this  knowledge  should  then  be  treated  com- 
paratively in  the  usual  scientific  manner;  comparisons  should 
be  made  with  other  countries,  other  crops,  other  methods,  etc., 
and  sound  general  principles  of  improvement  thus  deduced, 
the  experience  and  agricultural  history  of  the  most  advanced 
countries  being  used  as  a  guide  to  suggest  directions  of  work 
and  improvement.  New  products,  new  varieties,  improved 
varieties,  new  methods,  better  tools,  and  the  rest,  should  be 
very  fully  and  carefully  tested  before  trying  to  introduce  them 
into  peasant  agriculture,  remembering  that  poverty,  prejudice, 
custom,  ignorance,  and  indolence  are  all  formidable  obstacles  in 
the  path,  which  must  be  removed  or  avoided.  Or,  to  make  more 
concrete  suggestions,  there  should  be  Experimental  Gardens  to 
try  experiments  with  the  native  crops  and  tools,  and  parallel 
experiments  with  introduced  varieties,  improved  races,  better 
tools,  better  methods,  and  so  on.  Seed  of  kinds  decided  upon  as 
safe  to  recommend  should  be  distributed  among  the  peasantry 
from  the  gardens.  Estate  and  village  agriculture  should  be 
intermingled,  to  provide  object  lessons  to  the  latter  in  good 
methods  of  cultivation  and  treatment.  Legislation  for  the 
compulsory  treatment  of  disease  should  be  introduced,  to  deal 
with  any  important  crop  that  may  be  in  any  danger  from  bad 
or  uncleanly  methods.  School  gardens  should  be  established 
on  the  system  already  indicated,  to  help  in  introducing  new 
products,  and  to  inculcate  new  ideas  while  the  minds  are  still 
plastic.  Later,  peripatetic  teaching  might  be  introduced, 
perhaps  in  connection  with  some  system  of  inspecting  and 
teaching  in  the  school  gardens,  where  the  necessary  concrete 


CH.  IV]      CROPS  AND  METHODS  OF  PEASANT  AGRICULTURE        173 

object  lessons  are  to  hand,  or  in  connection  with  peripatetic 
Experimental  Gardens,  land  being  temporarily  rented  in  a 
village,  and  the  local  crops  cultivated  upon  it  according  to  the 
best  methods.  It  is  possible  also  that  some  system  of  prizes 
for  well-kept  gardens,  or  for  cultivation  of  new  products, 
might  prove  of  value.  Lastly,  some  system  of  village  shows 
might  prove  of  advantage,  with  small  prizes  to  the  real  cul- 
tivators and  preparers  of  the  produce ;  in  the  large  shows  these 
prizes  usually  go  to  the  headmen  or  to  rich  natives  who  have 
lessees  under  them,  or  who  have  purchased  the  exhibits  from 
the  makers  or  growers. 


174  [PT.  in 


CHAPTER  V. 

EDUCATION   OF   THE    PEASANT,   AND    ITS    BEARING 
UPON   AGRICULTURAL  PROGRESS. 

THE  thorny  subject  of  education  must  be  lightly  touched 
upon,  OQ  account  of  its  very  important  bearing  upon  agriculture. 
Education  of  the  native  produces  in  him  new  wants,  to  gratify 
which  he  must  in  some  way  earn  more  money.  In  this  way, 
consequently,  education  may  do  much  to  break  up  the  simplicity 
of  the  old  self-sufficient  villagers'  garden  type  of  agriculture, 
the  defects  of  which  were  considered  in  the  last  chapters.  It 
must,  however,  be  of  a  nature  to  guide  the  peasant  towards 
agricultural  pursuits,  and  encourage  him  in  them. 

As  yet,  in  the  East,  at  any  rate,  the  general  effect  of  educating 
the  native  seems  to  be  to  encourage  his  tendency  to  despise 
agricultural  pursuits,  and  more  especially  personal  hand-labour. 
If  he  receive  more  than  a  mere  elementary  vernacular  education, 
he  wants  to  go  off  to  the  towns,  and  become  a  clerk,  a  house 
servant,  anything  rather  than  an  agriculturist.  It  is  not  difficult 
to  understand  this  attraction  of  the  towns  and  town  life ;  the 
same  thing  is  equally  common  in  Europe  and  even  in  the  newer 
countries  like  Canada  and  Australia. 

The  main  question  to  be  considered  here  is  whether  any- 
thing can  be  done  in  the  education  of  the  children  or  adults  to 
help  forward  the  attainment  of  the  agricultural  ideals  which 
were  indicated  in  a  previous  chapter. 

All  experience  in  the  tropics  seems  to  point  to  the  fact  that 
but  little  can.be  done  in  the  way  of  direct  "education"  of  the 
adult  native,  though  much  may  often  be  effected  by  example  or 
demonstration.  The  question  of  giving  direct  agricultural  in- 
struction to  adults,  otherwise  than  by  demonstration,  seems 


OF    THE 

UNIVERSITY 

OF 


CH.  V]  EDUCATION    OF   THE   PEASANT  175 

almost  outside  the  region  of  practical  politics,  and  until  at 
least  a  generation  of  children  has  grown  up  under  agricultural 
teaching  influence. 

The  children,  generally  speaking,  are  sharp,  and  can  be 
more  readily  influenced  than  the  adults,  and  perhaps  the  best 
way  of  affecting  the  agricultural  practice  of  the  country  as  a 
whole  may  in  the  long  run  prove  to  be  through  the  children. 
Deliberate  and  well-organised  attempts  in  this  direction  are 
now  being  carried  on  in  Ceylon  and  the  West  Indies.  The 
establishment  of  a  system  of  School  Gardens  and  Nature-study 
lessons  should  be  productive  of  good  results,  and  is  well  worthy 
of  consideration. 

The  scheme  of  School  Gardens,  as  adopted  in  Ceylon,  has 
two  objects  in  view,  the  diversification  of  agriculture  in  the 
village  by  the  introduction  of  "new  products"  hitherto  unknown 
to  the  villagers,  and  the  training  up  of  the  younger  generation 
in  habits  of  thought  and  work  favourable  to  agricultural  im- 
provement, making  them  receptive  but  also  critical  towards 
improved  methods,  etc.  It  provides  in  the  villages  what  are 
practically  small  experimental  gardens  which  any  villager  may 
see  for  himself,  stocked  with  the  best  available  kinds  of  useful 
and  ornamental  plants,  laid  out  in  as  tasteful  a  manner  as 
possible.  Its  organisation  is  simple  and  inexpensive. 

The  teaching  of  agriculture,  as  such,  in  village  schools  is 
impracticable  and  inadvisable,  except  perhaps  in  large  schools, 
and  to  boys  of  at  least  twelve  years  old,  and  then  probably  best 
by  aid  of  peripatetic  teachers.  The  school-master  is  untrained 
in  this  most  difficult  art,  and  can  hardly  hope  to  do  as  well  as 
the  villagers  around  him.  He  thus  lays  himself  open  to  hostile 
criticism  and  ridicule,  and  the  end  in  view  is  defeated. 

What  can  be  done,  however,  is  that  master  and  pupils  may 
learn  by  personal  experience,  and  by  personal  labour  in  the 
garden  attached  to  the  school,  under  the  superintendence  of  a 
trained  Inspector  who  shall  periodically  visit  the  school,  how  to 
grow  and  treat  a  selection  of  useful  and  ornamental  plants  not 
yet  known  or  common  in  the  neighbourhood.  They  do  not 
thus  lay  themselves  open  to  criticism  to  such  an  extent,  they 
learn  the  general  principles  of  all  agricultural  work  just  as  well, 


176  AGRICULTURE   IN  THE   TROPICS  [PT.  Ill 

and  they  help  to  introduce  into  the  district  products  which  are 
new  to  it. 

The  produce  of  the  garden  may  be  divided  among  the 
masters  and  pupils,  reserving  a  small  portion  for  seed.  Prizes 
should  be  offered  for  the  best  gardens,  attention  being  paid  to 
ornamental  laying  out  and  gardening  as  well  as  to  the  practical 
side  of  the  work,  for  it  is  important  to  develop  a  love  of  flowers 
and  of  the  country  and  its  beauty,  to  help  to  check  the  tendency 
to  desert  the  country  for  the  towns. 

Object  lessons,  or  Nature-study  lessons  upon  the  work  of 
the  garden  and  the  plants  contained  in  it,  and  upon  the  various 
natural  objects  of  interest  in  the  neighbourhood,  should  be  given 
by  the  school-masters  when  competent  to  do  so,  at  first  under 
the  immediate  eye  of  the  Inspector.  All  work  and  instruction 
should  of  course  be  conducted  in  the  vernacular. 

The  expense  of  the  scheme  is  and  should  remain  small. 
The  actual  work  being  carried  out  by  masters  and  pupils,  there 
is  only  the  cost  of  tools,  of  the  Inspector  and  his  travelling,  of 
a  stock  garden  for  supplies  at  head-quarters,  and  a  few  small 
prizes. 

By  some  such  method  as  this  it  may  be  hoped  that  the 
younger  generation  may  be  induced  to  take  more  intelligent 
interest  in,  and  have  more  respect  for,  agricultural  pursuits  and 
country  life.  If  adopted,  the  scheme  should  be  first  put  into 
practice  in  selected  schools  whose  masters  are  keen  upon  doing 
such  work ;  the  work  should  be  made  an  alternative  subject  in 
the  school  curriculum,  and  in  Government  examinations,  etc., 
in  order  to  increase  its  prestige — a  most  important  point  in 
getting  natives  of  the  tropics  to  interest  themselves  in  anything 
of  the  kind. 

The  more  definite  teaching  of  agriculture  and  allied  subjects 
in  the  higher  schools  and  colleges  under  the  Department  of 
Public  Instruction  is  a  subject  for  later  consideration,  when 
the  elementary  schools  have  paved  the  way.  Practical  outdoor 
work  and  direct  technical  instruction  in  agriculture  should 
accompany  any  such  scheme;  the  high  school  boys,  in  the 
tropics  particularly,  tend  to  despise  such  work,  and  acquire  a 
smattering  of  book  knowledge  of  agriculture  which  is  of  little 


CH.  V]  EDUCATION   OF   THE   PEASANT  177 

or  no  use,  but  may  lead  to  disaster  if  put  into  practice  by 
natives  of  the  tropics,  who  are  not  good  at  adapting  principles 
to  actual  practical  use  in  the  field  or  elsewhere. 

There  are  many  and  great  difficulties  in  the  way  of  organising 
such  instruction.  In  the  first  place,  as  indicated  above  in  con- 
nection with  nature  study  and  school  gardens,  there  is  the 
difficulty  of  getting  good  teachers.  The  ordinary  teacher  cannot 
know  about  agricultural  practice  anything  like  so  much  as  the 
ordinary  villager,  and  consequently,  if  he  sets  to  work  to  teach 
boys,  will  render  himself  liable  to  ridicule.  It  is  better,  as 
pointed  out  above,  that  he  should  confine  his  teaching  to  culti- 
vations not  yet  understood  or  practised  in  the  village  where  he 
has  to  teach. 

In  the  second  place,  practical  outdoor  teaching  is  required, 
and  this,  apart  from  any  difficulty  in  getting  land,  must  often 
present  great  obstacles.  Unless  the  boys  have  been  accustomed 
to  practical  work  out  of  doors  by  school  garden  work  at  the 
elementary  school,  it  will  often  be  found  very  difficult  to  get 
them  to  take  part  in  it,  especially  in  the  more  severe  physical 
labour,  and  yet,  if  they  do  not,  they  can  never  acquire  a  real 
working  knowledge  of  agricultural  practice. 

In  Indian  countries,  the  caste  difficulty  sometimes  stands 
more  or  less  in  the  way  of  successful  practical  work,  especially 
if  the  student  who  has  been  trained  in  agriculture  is  to  be  sent 
to  teach  among  the  villagers.  The  higher  the  caste,  the  less 
inclined,  very  often,  is  the  man  (if  he  has  received  an  ordinary 
"good"  education)  to  do  hard  physical  labour,  and  yet  no  man 
but  a  high  caste  man  can  do  much  among  the  agricultural 
villagers,  who  are  very  commonly  of  high  caste  themselves. 

On  the  whole,  therefore,  agricultural  teaching  in  the  high 
schools  should  only  be  attempted  in  very  favourable  cases,  and 
attention  should  rather  be  directed  to  the  working  of  school 
gardens,  which  are  to  a  large  extent  free  from  the  great  draw- 
backs which  have  been  pointed  out.  The  instruction  given 
in  these  may  become  more  and  more  directed  to  agricultural 
practice  as  the  boys  get  older.  A  boy  is  best  kept  clear  of 
direct  technical  instruction  in  agriculture,  in  the  majority  of 
cases,  until  he  is  getting  well  up  in  the  schools. 

w.  12 


178  AGRICULTURE   IN  THE  TROPICS  [PT.  Ill 

Direct  technical  instruction  in  agriculture  should  be  the 
aim  of  special  agricultural  colleges,  perhaps  best  kept  up  in 
connection  with  the  Experiment  Stations  maintained  by  the 
Agricultural  Department.  To  these  colleges  should  be  drafted 
the  boys  who  show  signs  of  wishing  to  take  up  agriculture  as  a 
profession,  and  who  have  shown  promise  in  the  school  garden 
work,  etc. 

So  far,  at  any  rate,  as  the  natives  of  southern  Asia  are 
concerned,  it  would  appear  best  that  the  teaching  should  not 
be  too  much  bookwork,  but  should  as  much  as  possible  be 
practical,  out  of  door  teaching.  A  few  lessons  should  for  in- 
stance be  given  upon  insect  pests,  how  to  recognise  them,  how 
to  collect  and  send  in  specimens  to  the  official  entomologist, 
and  how  to  deal  with  the  attack.  The  same  with  regard  to 
fungus  pests,  and  other  things.  But  in  regard  to  agriculture 
proper  the  fewer  indoor  lessons,  and  the  more  outdoor  work, 
the  better.  A  few  indoor  lessons  on  the  particular  cultivation 
it  is  intended  to  teach,  and  the  rest  should  be  outdoor  practical 
work,  with  field  demonstrations. 


179 


CHAPTER  VI. 

CAPITALIST   OR   ESTATE   AGRICULTURE. 

THERE  can  be  but  little  doubt  that,  just  as  in  the  countries 
of  the  colder  zones,  the  continual  improvement  of  agricultural 
methods,  the  opening  up  of  roads,  railways,  and  other  means  of 
communication,  and  similar  progress,  favour  the  large  as  against 
the  small  cultivator  of  land,  and  that  the  latter  will  have  to 
take  to  cooperation,  sooner  or  later,  to  survive  in  the  compe- 
tition, or  become  a  labourer  on  the  large  estate.  Even  in  the 
oldest  agricultural  enterprises  of  the  tropics,  as  for  example 
rice  cultivation,  the  land  is  tending  steadily  to  fall  into  the 
hands  of  large  proprietors,  and  on  it  the  small  men  work  upon 
a  system  of  shares.  The  most  conspicuous  form  of  capitalist 
agricultural  work  in  the  tropics  is,  however,  what  is  usually 
known  as  the  "planting  industry,"  which  is  well  represented  in 
Ceylon,  India,  Java,  Sumatra,  the  Malay  States,  Hawaii,  the 
West  Indies,  South  America,  British  West  Africa,  French  and 
German  Africa,  and  elsewhere,  by  a  considerable  number  of 
plantations  of  tea,  coffee,  cacao,  rubber,  sugar,  coconuts,  tobacco, 
fruits,  cinchona,  cotton,  and  other  products.  These  plantations 
are  perhaps  most  often,  nowadays,  owned  by  companies  with 
headquarters  in  the  colder  countries,  and  the  estates  are  in 
charge  of  superintendents — or  planters — resident  upon  them. 
A  very  considerable  number  of  Englishmen  are  now  engaged  in 
this  line  of  work,  Ceylon  alone,  for  instance,  containing  nearly 
2000  of  them.  There  are  many  Dutchmen  in  Java,  etc., 
Americans  in  the  Philippines  and  West  Indies  and  Mexico, 
Germans  in  East  Africa,  the  Cameroons,  Samoa,  etc.,  French- 

12 2 


180  AGRICULTURE   IN   THE   TROPICS  [PT.  Ill 

men  in  Indo-China  and  Africa,  and  so  on,  while  in  the  eastern 
countries  at  any  rate,  large  numbers  of  the  natives  of  the 
country  are  also  owners  or  superintendents  of  estates,  and  the 
number  of  such  men  continues  to  increase. 

It  is  not  always  easy  to  draw  the  line  between  estate  and 
village  agriculture,  but  the  Ceylon  definition  of  an  estate — an 
area  of  at  least  20  acres  worked  in  whole  or  in  part  with  hired 
labour — is  a  convenient  criterion. 

The  great  primary  essentials  for  success  in  agriculture  of 
this  type  are  satisfactory  conditions  as  regards  labour,  finance, 
and  transport.  Next  follow  such  things  as  irrigation  and 
drainage,  and  the  more  strictly  agricultural  matters  of  con- 
tinual improvement  of  crops,  machinery,  methods,  preparation 
of  produce,  etc.,  the  prevention  of  disease,  and  so  on. 

Capitalist  agriculture  can  to  a  large  extent  choose  its 
location,  and  will  therefore  only  come  to  a  given  country  if  it 
can  offer  as  great  attractions  as  other  places,  either  by  its 
having  a  monopoly  of  some  particular  crop,  or  by  giving  good 
prospects  in  some  crop  that  can  also  be  cultivated  elsewhere. 
The  chief  obstacles  to  a  flow  of  capital  into  any  country  are 
therefore  not  so  much  agricultural  as  in  the  preliminaries  to 
agriculture,  and  if  these  can  be  satisfactorily  settled,  it  may 
almost  be  taken  for  granted  that  the  flow  will  begin. 

The  first  country  in  which  these  preliminary  conditions 
were  sufficiently  satisfied  to  attract  European  enterprise  was 
the  West  Indies.  Land  was  available  in  large  enough  amount, 
transport  was  easy  from  small  islands,  roads  were  easily  made, 
labour — thanks  to  slavery — was  cheap  and  abundant.  Capital 
was  forthcoming  from  England,  and  the  great  sugar  industry 
rapidly  sprang  up.  But,  with  the  abolition  of  slavery,  Ceylon, 
with  similar  natural  advantages,  and  with  plentiful  cheap  labour 
at  her  very  doors,  took  the  place  of  the  West  Indies  as  a  field 
for  the  investment  of  capital  in  planting  enterprises,  and  to  this 
day  it  holds  so  far  as  English  capital  is  concerned,  while  Java, 
Mexico,  and  Hawaii  hold  similar  places  in  regard  to  Dutch  and 
American  capital.  Thanks  to  the  large  planting  industry, 
Ceylon  has  been  far  more  rich  and  prosperous  than  it  would 
otherwise  have  been,  and  the  Government  has  been  able  to 


CH.  VI]  CAPITALIST  OR   ESTATE   AGRICULTURE  181 

carry  out  expensive  public  works  that  must,  but  for  planting, 
have  been  left  untouched. 

The  history  of  European  planting  in  Ceylon  is  a  wonderful 
story  of  brilliant  successes  chequered  by  dismal  failures,  which 
again  have  been  retrieved  by  indomitable  pluck  and  energy. 
With  the  conquest  of  the  Kandyan  kingdom — the  mountainous 
region  of  the  centre  of  the  island — and  the  opening  of  the  road 
to  its  capital,  the  country  was  thrown  open  to  "English  enter- 
prise. Conspicuous  among  the  first  pioneers  of  planting  was 
Sir  Edward  Barnes,  the  then  Governor,  who  in  1825  opened 
the  estate  of  Gangaruwa  near  Peradeniya,  now  the  site  of  a 
Government  Experiment  Station.  Much  money  was  vainly 
expended  at  first  in  trying  sugar,  indigo,  and  other  Indian 
crops,  but  presently  it  was  discovered  that  the  cleared  forest 
land  was  eminently  suited  to  the  growth  of  coffee.  The  time 
was  favourable,  the  duty  on  coffee  in  England  had  just  been 
reduced,  its  consumption  was  increasing  in  Europe,  and  the 
West  Indies  were  hampered  by  difficulties  with  the  slaves. 
By  1838  the  success  of  the  industry  was  assured,  and  in  that 
year  10,401  acres  of  crown  land  were  sold  to  planters,  while  in 
1841,  when  the  rush  was  at  its  height,  no  less  than  78,685 
acres  were  disposed  of.  "  The  coffee  mania  was  at  its  climax  in 
1845.  The  Governor  and  the  Council,  the  Military,  the  Judges, 
the  Clergy,  and  one  half  the  Civil  Servants  penetrated  the 
hills,  and  became  purchasers  of  crown  lands... capitalists  from 
England  arrived  by  every  packet... so  dazzling  was  the  prospect 
that  expenditure  was  unlimited;  and  its  profusion  was  only 
equalled  by  the  ignorance  and  inexperience  of  those  to  whom 
it  was  entrusted.  The  rush  for  land  was  only  paralleled  by  the 
movement  towards  the  mines  of  California  and  Australia,  but 
with  this  painful  difference,  that  the  enthusiasts  in  Ceylon, 
instead  of  thronging  to  disinter,  were  hurrying  to  bury  their 
gold  "  (Tennent). 

The  inevitable  collapse  soon  followed,  and  for  some  years 
the  coffee  industry  was  almost  paralysed,  but  by  1855  it  had 
more  than  recovered  its  lost  ground,  and  was  conducted  on 
more  practical  and  economical  lines.  From  that  date  to  about 
1882  it  was  the  staple  export  industry  of  the  colony,  reaching 


182  AGRICULTURE   IN   THE   TROPICS  [PT.  Ill 

its  maximum  in  1875,  when  almost  1,000,000  cwt.  of  coffee 
were  exported.  About  1870  the  plants  began  to  be  noticeably 
attacked  by  a  fungus  blight — Hemileia  vastatrix,  the  coffee  leaf 
disease — which  spread  steadily  and  irresistibly  over  the  vast 
sheet  of  coffee  plantation  in  the  mountains,  and  was  disregarded 
until  too  late,  if  indeed  any  practicable  measures  could  have 
been  adopted  against  it  at  any  time  in  its  history.  By  1880  the 
industry,  though  still  considerable,  was  in  a  parlous  condition, 
and  the  planters  in  great  distress,  but  with  the  most  com- 
mendable pluck  they  set  themselves  to  redeem  their  fallen 
fortunes,  aided  by  the  efforts  of  the  Botanical  department  of 
the  Government.  Cinchona  trees — the  source  of  the  valuable 
alkaloid  quinine — introduced  by  Government  years  before,  but 
disregarded  so  long  as  coffee  was  profitable,  were  now  the 
salvation  of  the  island.  Large  areas  were  planted  with  this 
product,  and  at  first  large  profits  were  realised,  but  soon  over- 
production rapidly  brought  down  the  price  of  quinine,  to  the 
incalculable  benefit  of  sufferers  all  over  the  world,  but  to  the 
ruin  of  the  profitableness  of  the  Ceylon  bark  industry — a  ruin 
consummated  by  the  attacks  of  a  canker  disease,  and  the  com- 
petition of  better  barks  from  Java.  The  gap,  however,  was 
bridged,  and  by  the  time  that  cinchona  had  passed  its  zenith, 
it  was  clear  that  tea  was  the  industry  of  the  future,  and  large 
areas  were  being  planted  up  in  it,  while  an  export  was  already 
commencing,  Ceylon  tea  being  favourably  received  upon  the 
markets  of  Europe.  The  rise  of  the  tea  industry  has  been 
phenomenal,  and  it  is  not  safe  to  assume  that  it  has  even  yet 
reached  its  maximum.  The  height  of  the  tea  boom  was  perhaps 
in  1896,  and  during  the  last  few  years  over-production  has  caused 
some  depression  in  the  trade,  while  the  new  industry  of  Para 
rubber  growing  has  sprung  up,  and  already  (December,  1907) 
no  less  than  about  150,000  acres  are  planted  in  this  product, 
which  has  proved  to  be  extremely  remunerative. 

Not  only  have  these  larger  industries  sprung  up,  but  also 
considerable  industries  in  other  things,  as  for  instance  cocoa 
and  cardamoms,  while  the  area  under  coconuts  has  continually 
spread,  until  now  it  is  the  largest  area  under  any  one  product 
in  the  island. 


CH.  VI]  CAPITALIST   OR   ESTATE   AGRICULTURE  183 

A  somewhat  similar  history  has  to  be  related  of  Java. 
Sugar  is  the  largest  planting  industry  there,  occupying  about 
a  million  acres,  but  Java  has  also  got  almost  entire  command 
of  the  cinchona  trade,  grows  large  quantities  of  good  coffee, 
pepper,  tea,  and  many  other  things,  and  is  now  getting  quite 
a  hold  upon  the  new  industry  of  rubber. 

The  West  Indies,  more  particularly  the  British  islands, 
suffered  so  much  from  the  collapse  of  their  slave-supported 
industry  in  sugar,  and  their  adherence  to  old  fashioned  methods 
of  preparation  (as  described  under  sugar  in  Part  II),  that  they 
were  for  a  very  long  time  considerably  under  a  cloud,  and  only 
of  recent  years  is  this  beginning  to  lift,  largely  in  consequence 
of  the  successful  work  done  by  the  Imperial  Department  of 
Agriculture.  Lately  they  have  established  a  large  and  prosperous 
industry  in  cotton,  while  in  many  of  the  islands  cocoa  or  fruit 
has  largely  taken  the  place  of  sugar,  and  other  minor  things  are 
also  cultivated. 

India  has  large  and  prosperous  industries  in  tea  in  Assam 
and  other  parts,  in  coffee  in  southern  India,  and  had  until  lately 
a  large  indigo  trade,  but  this  is  rapidly  disappearing  under  the 
competition  of  the  artificial  dye. 

The  Federated  Malay  States  had  once  a  considerable  in- 
dustry in  coffee,  but  this  has  gradually  died  out,  and  now  the 
country  is  mainly  devoted  to  the  growth  of  rubber,  while  in  the 
Straits  Settlements  pepper  and  other  things  are  also  cultivated, 
and  in  both  countries  there  is  a  large  area  under  sugar  and 
coconuts. 

West  Africa  is  now  being  opened  up  and  rendered  more 
healthy,  and  already  large  industries  in  cacao  and  cotton  are 
established  there. 

Turning  now  to  the  colonies  of  other  nations,  the  Americans 
are  establishing  considerable  fruit  industries  in  Porto  Rico,  and 
hemp  and  other  things  in  the  Philippines  ;  Germany  has  a  large 
planting  community,  attending  to  fibres,  rubber,  etc.,  in  East 
Africa,  to  cacao  and  rubber  in  West  Africa  and  Samoa ;  France 
has  planters  of  tea  and  rubber  in  Indo-China,  of  cacao  and 
rubber  in  Africa;  and  even  Italy  is  beginning  to  plant  in 
Erythraea. 


184  AGRICULTURE   IN   THE  TROPICS  [PT.  Ill 

In  the  independent  countries  of  the  tropics,  a  considerable 
amount  of  planting  also  goes  on.  Americans  have  very  large 
areas  under  rubber  in  Mexico,  under  bananas  in  Costa  Rica, 
under  sugar  in  Cuba;  Germans,  South  Americans,  and  others 
have  considerable  plantations  of  coffee  in  Central  America  and 
Venezuela;  there  are  large  areas  in  cacao,  sisal  hemp,  and  many 
other  products  in  tropical  America,  and  so  on. 

We  may  now  go  on  to  briefly  consider  the  general  methods 
of  opening  an  estate.  The  land  having  been  chosen,  the  first 
work  is  usually  to  clear  it,  it  being  most  often,  perhaps,  covered 
with  forest.  The  aid  of  the  natives  of  the  country  is  called  in 
to  do  this,  and  they  are  usually  clever  at  it.  The  trees  are  all 
cut  on  the  same  side,  and  then  the  fall  is  started,  and  often 
takes  place  over  a  large  area  together,  the  trees  falling  in  much 
the  same  direction.  They  are  then  left  on  the  ground  to  dry, 
and  presently  burnt,  either  just  as  they  lie,  or  after  a  certain 
amount  of  piling  by  aid  of  elephants  or  otherwise. 

The  plants  which  are  to  go  upon  the  ground  are  meanwhile 
raised  in  nurseries,  and  when  the  land  is  sufficiently  clear  are 
planted  out  in  holes  made  among  the  stumps  and  filled  with 
good  soil.  In  a  few  years,  except  at  very  high  elevations,  decay 
and  white  ants  will  remove  all  trace  of  the  former  timber. 

At  this  stage  coolie  labour  of  some  regularity  has  to  be 
provided  for,  and  this  often,  especially  in  the  case  of  thinly 
peopled  countries,  means  importing  it ;  in  this  case,  at  any  rate, 
the  coolies  have  to  be  provided  with  lines,  as  their  single-roomed 
dwellings  are  often  called.  Most  commonly,  perhaps,  the  coolies 
are  imported  under  advances  of  money  made  to  pay  for  the  cost 
of  passage,  etc.,  and  these  advances  are  repaid  to  the  planter 
out  of  their  pay. 

The  bungalow  for  the  superintendent,  the  coolie  lines,  and 
any  other  buildings  required  at  once  have  also  to  be  put  up  in 
the  early  stages  of  planting  an  estate.  After  this,  there  is 
usually  a  period  of  greater  or  less  length,  varying  from  six 
months  in  cotton  to  three  years  in  tea,  and  six  or  seven  in 
rubber,  before  any  actual  return  can  be  looked  for  (unless  quick 
growing  catch  crops  are  cultivated),  so  that  it  is  obvious  that 
considerable  capital  is  required  for  planting.  In  rubber,  for 


CH.  Vl]  CAPITALIST  OR   ESTATE  AGRICULTURE  185 

example,  it  is  estimated  that  £20 — £30  per  acre  must  be  spent 
before  any  return  can  be  looked  for. 

When  a  few  planters  have  established  themselves  in  any 
locality,  the  next  step  is  usually  the  formation  of  a  Planters' 
Association.  Ceylon  has  the  best  organised  associations,  there 
being  one  in  each  of  about  thirty  districts,  while  in  Kandy  there 
is  a  general  combined  association,  with  over  1000  members. 
These  associations  make  it  their  business  to  discuss  and  call 
attention  to  the  wants  of  their  members,  as  regards  roads, 
drains,  medical  attention,  sanitation,  hospitals,  and  what  not, 
and  to  press  these  matters  upon  the  attention  of  the  Govern- 
ment through  the  central  association.  In  a  prosperous  colony 
like  Ceylon,  where  in  one  way  and  another  the  planting  industry 
provides  the  bulk  of  the  revenue,  such  recommendations  have 
much  weight  with  the  Government. 

In  Java,  the  associations  are  of  planters  of  one  product,  as 
of  cinchona,  tea,  or  coffee.  This,  while  very  good  for  the  single 
products,  is  perhaps  not  so  good  for  the  planting  industry  in 
general,  for  the  conflicting  claims  of  the  different  industries  are 
not  so  easy  to  adjust. 

Having  in  the  consideration  of  peasant  agriculture  dealt 
with  the  idea  that  the  country  was  to  be  entirely  self-supporting, 
growing  all  that  it  required,  and  consuming  all  that  it  grew, 
we  may  now  proceed  to  consider  the  other  extreme,  that  of  a 
country  in  which  all,  or  practically  all,  the  land  is  the  property 
of,  and  worked  by,  large  capitalist  owners,  the  bulk  of  the 
population  consisting  of  paid  labourers  upon  these  properties. 
This  state  of  affairs  may  be  seen  in  certain  parts  of  Ceylon, 
India,  and  Java,  where  the  whole  district  is  practically  owned 
by  a  few  individuals  or  companies,  and  the  population  consists 
of  coolie  labourers,  with  the  few  overseers,  shopkeepers,  and 
others  necessary.  Excepting  that  in  modern  times  the  labourers 
are  free,  the  general  economic  condition  may  be  compared  with 
that  of  the  older  slave-labour  period.  Such  a  country  is  often 
very  prosperous,  but  its  prosperity  rests  upon  an  unstable  basis, 
for  as  a  rule  there  is  in  such  cases  but  little  diversity  of  in- 
dustries, and  all  the  eggs  are  in  one  basket.  Such  a  state  of 
affairs  has  usually  come  about,  where  a  country  or  district  has 


186  AGRICULTURE   IN  THE  TROPICS  [PT.  Ill 

been  found  to  be  eminently  suited  to  some  one  industry,  into 
which  there  has  then  been  a  rush,  other  industries  being 
neglected  in  favour  of  the  one  which  pays  best,  as  is  inevitable. 
Such  cases  have  been  or  are  the  old  cotton  industry  of  slavery 
days  in  the  southern  United  States,  the  sugar  industry  of  the 
West  Indies,  the  coffee  industry  of  Ceylon,  and  now  to  a  less 
marked  degree  the  tea  industry  of  that  colony. 

In  such  a  state  of  matters,  the  local  market  is  usually  a 
very  small  one,  the  industry  depends  upon  external  markets, 
and  there  is  a  large  export  trade.  The  success  of  the  industry 
is  also  as  a  rule  dependent  upon  a  large  supply  of  cheap  labour. 
A  survey  of  the  tropical  countries  which  export  large  quantities 
of  produce  shows  that  the  export  has  a  direct  relation  to  the 
abundance  and  cheapness  of  the  labour  supply,  and  countries 
which  have  not  abundant  local  labour  must  import  it  if  they 
are  to  take  much  part  in  trade.  Some  approximate  figures, 
given  lately  by  Mr  Ireland  in  the  Times,  illustrate  this.  Of 
the  countries  in  which  there  is  a  pressure  of  population,  Java 
exports  produce  to  the  value  of  105.  per  head  per  annum, 
Barbados  95s.  Of  the  countries  employing  imported  labour, 
Hawaii  exports  520s.  per  head,  the  Federated  Malay  States,  170s., 
British  Guiana,  120s.,  while  of  the  independent  tropical  States, 
Brazil  exports  30s.  per  head,  Siam,  10s. 

With  such  an  agricultural  industry,  the  country  or  district 
may  be  as  much  in  a  state  of  exploitation  as  if  it  were  dependent 
upon  mining,  if  not  more  so.  During  its  most  prosperous  periods, 
the  profits  are  to  a  greater  or  less  extent  taken  out  of  the 
country  by  the  planters,  the  imported  coolies,  the  foreign  money- 
lenders, and  others.  The  finest  soils  and  the  best  forests  are 
liable  to  ruthless  destruction  if  the  Government  be  not  strong 
enough  to  resist  popular  clamour  for  the  opening  of  fresh  land 
in  time  of  great  prosperity  of  particular  industries. 

The  prosperity  of  such  large  industries  largely  depends  on 
cheap  labour  and  new  land,  and  sooner  or  later  over-production, 
attacks  of  disease  such  as  always  tend  to  work  havoc  upon  large 
areas  devoted  to  one  crop,  the  opening  up  of  new  land  in  the 
same  or  other  countries,  or  the  competition  of  countries  with 
cheaper  labour  or  better  methods,  brings  depression,  if  not  even 


CH.  VI]  CAPITALIST   OR   ESTATE   AGRICULTURE  187 

total  collapse.  Well-known  instances  are  (1)  coffee  in  Ceylon, 
whose  failure  and  disappearance  were  due  in  the  first  place 
to  disease,  and  in  the  second  to  the  competition  of  Brazil ; 
(2)  cinchona  in  Ceylon,  which  failed  owing  to  over-production 
and  the  competition  of  Java,  the  latter  country  adopting  scientific 
treatment  for  the  continual  improvement  of  the  barks ;  (.3)  sugar 
in  the  West  Indies,  whose  depression  and  almost  complete 
collapse  were  due  to  loss  of  the  cheap  slave  labour  in  the  first 
instance  and  afterwards  to  the  competition  of  beet  sugar  (bounty- 
aided),  to  better  methods,  newer  land,  and  cheaper  labour  in 
other  countries. 

If  the  staple  industry  collapse,  widespread  disaster  follows 
in  a  country  so  organised.  Coolies  and  others  are  thrown  out 
of  work,  and  often  have  no  laud  of  their  own  to  support  them- 
selves upon,  the  subsidiary  trades  of  transport,  supply  of  clothing, 
etc.,  suffer,  the  Government  revenue  decreases,  and  everything 
becomes  more  or  less  disorganised,  with  risk  of  famine,  rioting, 
or  other  troubles. 

It  would  be  wrong,  however,  to  suggest  that  such  a  state  of 
affairs  must  necessarily  occur  in  a  country  organised  on  the 
system  we  are  considering.  Disease  may  be  taken  in  time, 
natural  advantages  of  soil  or  climate,  or  labour,  or  of  suitability 
of  the  country  to  a  particular  crop,  may  be  so  great  as  to  allow 
no  chance  of  profitable  competition  to  rival  countries,  planters 
may  be  enterprising  and  progressive,  and  the  kind  of  crop,  its 
quality  and  yield,  the  methods  used  in  cultivating  and  preparing 
it  for  market,  and  other  features,  may  be  continually  improved 
by  aid  of  science,  to  such  an  extent  as  to  keep  the  country 
ahead  of  its  rivals.  It  seems  improbable,  for  instance,  that 
Java  will  be  ousted  from  her  position  of  supremacy  in  cinchona 
cultivation,  or  India  and  Ceylon  in  tea. 

It  would  be  equally  wrong  to  infer  that  under  this  system 
the  country  itself,  even  if  its  planters  and  its  labourers  be  both 
foreign  (as  is  largely  the  case  in  Ceylon),  is  not  enriched.  All 
kinds  of  subsidiary  trades  flourish  upon  the  planting  industry, 
the  planters  and  the  coolies  spend  large  sums  in  the  country, 
the  revenue  is  large,  and  consequently  the  Government  can  do 
much  for  the  opening  up  of  the  country  by  roads,  railways, 


188  AGRICULTURE   IN   THE  TROPICS  [PT.  Ill 

bridges,  and  other  transport  facilities,  for  education,  sanitation, 
etc.  In  spite  of  the  collapse  of  coffee,  Ceylon  has  been  much 
richer  for  its  planting  enterprises.  Further,  though  at  first  the 
planters  and  capitalists  engaged  in  the  planting  industry  may 
be  all  foreign,  sooner  or  later  a  number  of  natives  are  also 
found  to  engage  in  the  same  industry,  and  their  savings  and 
profits  are  not  taken  out  of  the  country  like  those  of  the  foreign 
planters.  This,  for  instance,  has  occurred  to  a  large  extent  in 
Ceylon,  where  there  are  now  a  large  number  of  native  capitalists, 
large  and  small,  engaged  in  the  tea,  coconut,  and  other  industries. 

Evidently,  therefore,  we  require  to  arrive  at  some  mean  or 
compromise  between  these  two  extremes.  Nearly  all  those 
who  have  had  to  deal  with  the  agricultural  problems  of  such 
countries  as  Ceylon  or  the  West  Indies,  have  pronounced  in 
favour  of  diversification  of  agricultural  industries,  or  in  other 
words,  the  encouragement  of  the  cultivation  of  "new  products/' 
i.e.,  products  not  as  yet  cultivated  in  the  country.  I  propose  to 
enlarge  the  significance  of  this  expression,  and  to  say  that  the 
best  course  to  adopt  is  to  encourage  the  diversification  of  agri- 
culture, so  that  not  only  shall  the  country  grow  many  products 
and  so  not  place  all  its  eggs  in  one  basket,  but  that  it  shall 
have  as  many  kinds  of  agriculture  as  possible,  from  the  largest 
capitalist  organisation,  working  on  the  very  large  scale  with 
hired  labour  and  machinery,  down  to  the  smallest  and  simplest 
forms  of  villagers'  cultivation,  carried  on  upon  small  blocks  of 
land  by  the  labour  simply  of  the  owner  and  his  family. 

At  present  there  is  plenty  of  room  in  most  tropical  countries 
for  every  form  of  agriculture,  so  that  there  is  no  need  to  cal- 
culate with  great  exactness,  or  consider  whether  one  form  is 
becoming  too  dominant.  Until  the  various  countries  are  much 
more  fully  opened  up  and  populated,  it  would  seem  most 
advisable  to  encourage  both  forms  of  agriculture,  capitalist  and 
peasant,  to  the  utmost.  But  there  are  a  few  points  to  which 
attention  is  necessary  from  the  first.  For  instance,  in  any 
given  district,  unless  it  is  very  conspicuously  suited  to  one 
kind  of  agriculture  only,  or  to  one  product  only,  like  a  district 
irrigated  for  rice,  too  large  an  area  should  not  be  allowed  to 
become  devoted  to  one  form  of  agriculture  only.  If  a  large 


CH.  VI]  CAPITALIST   OR  ESTATE   AGRICULTURE  189 

area  is  taken  up  for  planting,  sufficient  area  should  be  reserved 
for  small  holders  within  a  moderate  distance,  so  that  in  the 
future  there  may  be  village  labour  obtainable  upon  the  large 
estates,  as  in  Java.  On  the  other  hand,  the  planting  estates 
should  not  be  too  much  cut  up  by  small  holdings  between 
them,  for  there  is  much  more  risk  of  theft,  greater  expense  in 
making  boundaries,  and  far  more  trouble  in  keeping  the  culti- 
vation free  of  weeds  when  it  is  surrounded  by  native  holdings. 

Similarly,  allowance  must  be  made  for  the  little  towns  and 
hamlets  of  shops,  small  factories,  etc.,  which  must  necessarily 
grow  up  when  the  country  is  largely  opened  up  for  agriculture. 
These  will  of  course  tend  to  lie  chiefly  along  the  main  channels 
of  communication,  such  as  trunk  roads,  rivers,  etc.  A  large 
part  of  the  frontages  to  such  roads,  etc.,  might  therefore  be 
reserved  with  advantage  for  sale  as  sites  of  shops,  etc.  If  the 
road  reservations  advocated  in  a  previous  chapter  be  decided 
upon,  land  for  the  agricultural  settlement  of  ordinary  villagers 
may  well  be  sold  along  them,  reserving  frontage  on  the  trunk 
roads  for  sale  at  higher  rates  for  the  special  purposes  mentioned. 
The  ordinary  cultivator  will  be  every  bit  as  well  suited  on  land 
on  the  side  roads,  and  it  is  waste  of  good  sites  to  let  him  take 
them  up  at  low  rates  along  the  fine  main  roads.  He  should 
not  be  too  far  away  from  these  main  roads,  but  there  need 
be  no  difficulty  in  this  if  the  road  reservations  be  made,  as 
suggested. 


190  [PT.  in 


CHAPTER    VII. 

THE     AGRICULTURAL    NEEDS     OF     THE     PLANTING 
ENTERPRISE.     SUMMARY    OF   PART   III. 

WE  may  consider  the  more  specially  agricultural  needs  of 
capitalist  enterprise  in  the  same  order  as  those  of  peasant 
industries,  to  the  discussion  of  which  reference  may  be  made 
for  further  details.  Thus  the  work  of  introducing  new  products, 
and  new  kinds  of  those  already  grown,  and  that  of  breeding 
new  and  improved  kinds,  is  as  desirable  for  the  planting  enter- 
prise as  for  village  agriculture.  At  the  same  time,  it  is  well  to 
point  out  for  the  second  time  that  enterprise  of  the  kind  now 
under  consideration  tends  to  run  in  grooves,  the  product  that 
offers  greatest  attraction  being  alone  taken  up,  as  is  at  present 
the  case  with  rubber  in  very  many  tropical  countries. 

To  introduce  a  "new  product"  is  a  great  deal  more  easily 
said  than  done.  In  the  earlier  days  of  tropical  planting,  there 
were  still  many  products  which  were  as  yet  only  produced  from 
wild  plants,  or  cultivated  only  by  the  backward  native  races 
of  tropical  and  subtropical  countries.  These,  taken  up  by 
Europeans,  with  capital,  virgin  soil,  good  methods,  economical 
working,  and  careful  preparation  for  market,  in  many  cases 
rapidly  drove  the  older  product  of  the  jungle  or  of  village 
agriculture  to  a  great  extent  out  of  the  markets.  Ceylon  affords 
excellent  illustrations,  in  the  successive  rise  of  her  industries  of 
coffee,  cinchona,  cacao,  cardamoms,  tea,  and  lastly  india-rubber. 
Now,  however,  the  day  of  this  kind  of  success  is  probably  largely 
over.  Almost  all  products  which  have  any  large  trade  are 
now  being  cultivated  in  some  part  of  the  tropics  by  European, 
American,  or  Chinese  planters,  and  to  find  new  ones  capable  of 


CH.  VII]    AGRICULTURAL  NEEDS  OF  PLANTING  ENTERPRISE       191 

forming  the  basis  of  large  and  profitable  industries  is  no  easy 
matter.  It  is  better  to  make  the  best  of  those  we  have  than 
to  be  continually  looking  out  for  new  ones  to  take  their  place. 
Before  a  new  industry  can  be  established,  thorough  tests  have 
to  be  made  of  its  suitability  to  the  climate  and  soil,  and  its 
cheapness  and  efficiency  as  compared  with  rival  countries 
practising  it. 

As  regards  methods  of  cultivation,  while  there  is  no  doubt 
less  to  learn  than  in  the  case  of  village  agriculture,  there  is 
great  room  for  improvement.  To  take  the  case  of  machinery 
for  cultivation,  it  would  be  hard  to  find  a  soil  more  suited  to 
the  use  of  light  machines  than  that  of  the  coast  districts  in 
many  tropical  countries.  Already  machinery  is  coming  in  in 
many  places.  High  cultivation,  the  use  of  green  manuring, 
and  prevention  of  wash,  at  present  rendered  difficult  by  lack  of 
labour,  might  all  be  rendered  possible  by  careful  study  of  the 
problems  involved,  and  the  invention  of  light  and  simple 
machinery  for  the  different  purposes. 

All  the  methods  of  cultivation  want  careful  study  in  ex- 
perimental gardens,  and  thorough  testing  against  the  existing 
methods  of  other  countries,  and  against  suggested  improved 
methods.  There  is  much  to  learn  in  tillage,  in  actual  cultivation 
of  the  crop,  propagation,  selection  of  seeds,  manuring,  weeding, 
pruning,  catch-cropping,  mixture  of  crops,  rotation  of  crops,  and 
other  matters.  All  these  are  best  studied  at  first  with  the  aid 
of  experiment  stations,  and  with  free  discussion,  but  it  is 
important  to  get  the  planters  themselves  to  develop  an  " ex- 
perimental" habit  of  mind,  and  start  experiments  themselves 
to  test  and  extend  the  results  obtained  in  the  experiment 
stations.  Cooperative  experimental  work  has  proved  of  great 
value  to  agriculture  in  Canada,  the  United  States,  and  else- 
where. 

The  next  point  for  consideration  is  the  prevention  of  disease, 
and  the  introduction  of  better  methods  of  treatment,  and  of 
sound  plant  sanitation  generally.  When  a  crop  is  cultivated 
over  a  large  piece  of  land,  unbroken  by  other  crops,  any  disease 
that  breaks  out  upon  it  is  far  more  liable  to  spread  rapidly  and 
get  out  of  hand  than  in  the  case  of  mixed  cultivation  or  of 


192  AGRICULTURE    IN   THE   TROPIC'S  [PT.  Ill 

little  patches  of  different  crops.  This  liability  to  epidemics  of 
disease  is  one  of  the  most  serious  dangers  confronting  large 
agricultural  enterprises.  The  most  famous  instance  in  the 
tropics  is  of  course  the  ruin  of  the  coffee  industry  of  Ceylon 
by  the  attacks  of  the  leaf-disease  fungus  and  the  coffee-scale 
insect. 

One  great  difficulty  in  the  way  of  dealing  with  such  out- 
breaks in  good  time  is  the  unwillingness  of  estate  owners  to 
confess  that  their  property  is  attacked  by  disease.  This  is 
natural  enough;  such  a  statement  lowers  the  value  of  the 
property  in  the  share  market.  But  there  is  no  doubt  that  in 
countries  like  Ceylon  this  difficulty  has  been  much  lessened 
of  late  years,  and  that  planters — like  the  fruit-growers  of  the 
western  United  States — have  largely  realised  that  the  policy 
of  concealment  is  a  mistake,  and  that  it  is  better  to  call  in 
help  at  the  very  first  appearance  of  trouble.  Applications  for 
such  help  to  the  Government  officers  who  deal  with  disease  are 
of  course  regarded  as  private  matters,  while  at  the  same  time 
the  feeling  of  the  public  continually  grows  in  favour  of  such 
action.  Greater  confidence  in  the  safety  of  crops  from  devas- 
tating pests  or  diseases  is  naturally  felt  by  agriculturists  when 
they  feel  assured  that  most  people  who  notice  outbreaks  will  at 
once  report  them  to  responsible  officers,  who  will  do  all  that 
can  be  done  to  assist  the  adoption  of  proper  treatment  at  the 
earliest  possible  time. 

At  the  same  time,  experience  in  all  advanced  agricultural 
countries  shows  that  even  when  the  majority  are  content  to 
treat  disease  promptly,  and  have  realised  that  this  is  the  most 
profitable  course,  there  always  remain  some  who  will  do  nothing, 
and  whose  cultivations  thus  form  a  hotbed  of  disease  to  re-infect 
those  of  their  neighbours.  For  them — as  in  matters  of  public 
health  and  prevention  of  epidemic  and  infectious  diseases — 
legislation  is  necessary  and  just,  and  they  must  be  compelled 
to  deal  with  insanitary  conditions,  as  soon  as  public  opinion 
is  ripe  for  so  dealing  with  them.  Ceylon  now  has  a  Pests 
Ordinance  in  operation,  under  which  Government  can  proclaim 
any  pest,  with  the  measures  required  for  its  treatment,  call  upon 
people  to  adopt  these,  and  punish  them  for  non-compliance. 


CH.  VII]    AGRICULTURAL  NEEDS  OF  PLANTING  ENTERPRISE      193 

Lastly,  there  remains  to  be  considered  the  question  of  im- 
provement of  methods  of  preparing  produce  for  market.  In 
general,  of  course,  estate  products  are  the  best  prepared  in  the 
country,  but  the  competition  of  other  countries  has  to  be  met, 
and  these  are  continually  improving  their  methods.  Continual 
investigation  of  methods  with  a  view  to  their  improvement 
must  be  the  watchword  of  all  progressive  industries.  Work  of 
this  kind  can  best  be  done  upon  a  large  Experiment  Station, 
and  if  in  connection  with  cooperative  experimental  work  among 
planters,  so  much  the  better.  Arrangements  are  already  in  force 
with  the  Imperial  Institute  and  other  authorities  in  England 
whereby  reports  can  be  obtained  upon  the  quality  and  value  of 
products  sent  to  Europe. 

To  sum  up,  the  needs  of  estate  agriculture  are  much  the 
same  as  those  of  village  agriculture,  excepting  as  regards  labour. 
Leaving  out  of  account  these  primary  questions  of  labour,  trans- 
portation, drainage,  etc.,  the  chief  needs  of  this  form  of  enterprise 
would  seem  to  be  those  which  can  be  best  met  by  the  formation 
of  a  scientific  Department  of  Agriculture,  which  should  include 
the  necessary  staff  of  expert  advisers  in  matters  of  disease 
prevention,  etc.,  a  system  of  Experiment  Stations  for  thorough 
trial  of  new  products,  new  methods,  new  machinery,  new  ways 
of  preparing  crops  for  market,  and  so  on.  Though  ignorance 
may  often  prove  an  obstacle  to  progress  in  this  form  of  enter- 
prise, it  is  more  easily  removed  than  in  the  case  of  the  villager 
by  lectures,  leaflets  and  other  publications,  demonstrations  at 
Experiment  Stations  and  on  estates,  and  other  ways.  Progress 
is  little  likely  to  be  checked  to  any  serious  extent  at  this 
period  of  planting  history  by  the  other  obstacles  which  are  so 
formidable  in  the  case  of  the  villagers.  Competition  will  almost 
ensure  progress,  but  the  great  thing  is  to  systematise  this,  and 
this  is  best  done  with  the  help  of  a  technical  department  which 
shall  keep  abreast  of  the  progress  being  made  in  all  forms  of 
agriculture  throughout  the  world. 

To  recapitulate  Part  III   of  the  book,  then,  it  is  evident 

that  with  the  opening  up  of  a  country  agricultural  progress — 

using  the  term  as  implying  the  opening  up  of  new  land,  the 

introduction  and  successful  cultivation  of  new  crops,  the  ex- 

w.  13 


194  AGRICULTURE   IN   THE   TROPICS  [PT.  Ill 

tension  and  improvement  of  old  ones,  the  improvement  of 
methods  of  cultivation  and  of  preparation  of  produce,  greater 
economy  and  efficiency  all  round,  and  greater  stability  of 
agricultural  industries  and  freedom  from  epidemic  diseases  or 
other  crises— becomes  possible,  and  we  have  to  consider  how 
best  to  further  it.  Both  estate  and  peasant  agriculture  should 
be  fostered  by  the  Government,  the  former  especially,  inasmuch 
as  its  extension  will  help  to  open  up  and  populate  the  country 
very  much  more  rapidly.  The  needs  of  both  these  forms  of 
agriculture  are  very  similar,  or  at  least  can  be  fairly  well 
harmonised.  The  country  must  be  made  as  attractive  to  the 
agricultural  capitalist  and  to  the  labourer  and  peasant  as  is 
possible.  To  do  this  the  first  great  essentials  are  the  settlement 
of  the  questions  of  land  and  its  availability  (i.e.,  roads,  drainage, 
etc.),  finance,  and  labour  for  large  estates.  Without  assurance 
of  satisfactory  treatment  of  these  points,  capital  will  go  else- 
where for  investment,  unless  there  is  some  industry  so  attractive 
as  to  overcome  even  these  disadvantages.  The  questions  of 
easy  acquisition  of  land,  road  frontage,  drainage,  canals,  etc., 
are  of  equal  importance  to  both  forms  of  agriculture,  and  finance 
is  also  vital.  Large  capitalist  enterprises  may  well  be  left  to 
attend  to  this  matter  themselves,  but  some  system  of  cheaply 
financing  small  enterprises,  and  thus  helping  the  villagers  to 
escape  the  burden  of  heavy  debt  and  high  rates  of  interest, 
preferably  by  mutual  cooperation,  should  receive  early  con- 
sideration in  every  tropical  country. 

To  raise  the  standard  of  agriculture  throughout  the  country 
we  must  also  raise  the  standard  of  living;  these  two  are  in 
intimate  relation  to  one  another.  The  villager  will  not  grow 
larger  or  better  crops,  or  improve  his  agriculture  unless  he  has 
an  immediate  local  market,  sufficiently  remunerative  to  tempt 
him  to  grow  for  it,  and  sufficiently  certain  and  permanent  to 
give  him  reasonable  security  against  future  loss.  One  important 
factor  in  attaining  these  various  ends  we  have  seen  to  be  the 
intermingling  of  village  and  estate  agriculture  in  suitable 
.blocks,  one  block  comprising  the  one  form  only,  the  next  the 
other.  Combined  with  this  practice,  which  will  give  the  villager 
.object  lessons  in  his  own  district,  is  the  principle  that  the 


CH.  VII]    AGRICULTURAL  NEEDS  OF  PLANTING  ENTERPRISE       195 

peasant  should  be  encouraged  to  grow  the  "  estate  "  crops,  and 
those  which  he  best  understands  and  prefers,  while  the  estates 
should  be  subsidised  to  whatever  extent  is  actually  necessary 
to  induce  them  to  buy  the  peasants'  produce  at  fixed  rates. 

The  further  points  to  be  attended  to  if  agriculture  is  to 
progress  are  technical,  and  it  is  pretty  evident  that  to  attend 
properly  to  these  a  technical  and  scientific  Department  of 
Agriculture  is  required.  All  crops  grown  in  the  country  require 
careful  study  with  regard  to  the  varieties  grown,  the  methods 
of  cultivation  used,  the  liability  to  disease,  the  preparation  of 
the  product  for  market,  the  prices  obtained,  and  so  on.  In  all 
these  points  improvement  is  possible  and  necessary,  by  the 
introduction  of  new  crops  from  abroad,  by  the  introduction  of 
new  kinds  of  the  already  existing  crops,  by  the  breeding  of  new 
varieties  better  suited  to  local  conditions,  by  the  improvement 
of  local  methods,  tools,  machinery,  use  of  manure,  mixture  and 
rotation  of  crops,  by  better  and  more  prompt  treatment  of 
disease,  by  improvement  of  methods  of  preparation  of  produce, 
by  cheapening  of  cost  of  production  and  transport,  and  in  many 
other  ways. 

The  great  obstacles  in  the  way  of  this  improvement  are 
ignorance,  poverty,  indolence,  and  conservatism.  Education 
must  therefore  be  an  important  factor.  Gardening  at  school 
should  be  encouraged,  on  the  lines  already  indicated,  and  later 
definite  peripatetic  agricultural  teaching  must  be  tried,  perhaps 
through  the  medium  of  the  officers  engaged  in  carrying  out 
sanitary  enactments.  The  operation  of  these  enactments  affords 
an  excellent  peg  on  which  to  hang  future  attempts  at  the 
amelioration  of  local  agriculture. 


13—2 


PART  IV. 

AGRICULTURAL  ORGANISATION   AND  POLICY. 


CHAPTER  I. 
ORGANISATION  OF  AGRICULTURE. 

THE  duty  of  the  Government  of  a  country  is  obviously  to 
encourage  agriculture  to  the  utmost,  and  to  make  it  as  attractive 
as  other  pursuits,  both  to  the  capitalist  and  to  the  peasant  or 
labourer.  What  is  wanted  is  a  genuine  and  steadfast  encourage- 
ment of  agriculture,  a  removal  of  difficulties  from  its  path,  and 
the  adoption  of  such  a  policy,  and  such  an  attitude  towards  it 
and  those  who  pursue  it,  as  will  make  it  reasonably  certain 
that  it  shall  afford  as  good  prospects  as  any  other  form  of 
enterprise  to  the  planter,  peasant,  or  labourer. 

To  ensure  the  end  in  view  it  is  no  use  nibbling  at  the 
numerous  fringes  of  the  problem.  A  definite  policy  must  be 
adopted,  and  the  efforts  of  all  the  various  departments  of 
Government  and  other  organisations  directed  steadily  and 
resolutely  to  the  carrying  out  of  this  policy.  The  essentially 
important  points  to  be  aimed  at  must  be  carefully  distin- 
guished from  the  less  essential,  and  effort  directed  towards 
them.  And  not  towards  one  or  two  of  them  only,  but  towards 
all  at  once.  There  must  be  full  and  complete  concentration 
and  continuity  of  effort  towards  the  same  end. 

Perhaps  the  greatest  weakness  in  the  present  state  of 
affairs  in  many  tropical  countries  is  this  very  lack  of  con- 
centration of  effort  and  of  a  definite  policy  on  the  part  of  the 


CH.  l]  ORGANISATION  OF   AGRICULTURE  197 

Government.  Everyone,  from  the  highest  to  the  lowest,  is  anxious 
to  do  something  for  the  advancement  of  the  agricultural  progress 
of  the  country,  and  many  have  done  great  things  for  it.  The 
weak  point  is  lack  of  concentration  and  of  continuity.  In  many 
countries  there  is  no  agricultural  department  or  organisation, 
whose  special  business  is  to  attend  to  agricultural  matters  or 
policy.  Each  officer  of  Government  has  his  own  views  as  to 
what  is  required,  and  in  each  position  which  he  may  occupy — 
and,  as  a  rule,  his  occupation  is  but  for  a  very  few  years  at 
most — he  puts  these  views  into  operation  so  far  as  his  time, 
the  availability  of  funds,  and  the  instructions  or  criticisms  of 
his  superior  officers  will  allow.  The  next  occupant  of  his  post 
probably  has  entirely  different  views,  and  the  net  result  of  this 
kind  of  thing  is  but  little.  Roads  and  railways  and  other 
public  works,  again,  are  carried  out  without  special  reference 
to  the  future  of  agriculture  in  the  country;  agricultural  finance, 
drainage,  and  other  matters  of  vital  importance  are  left  more 
or  less  neglected;  and  so  on. 

A  general  consideration  of  the  history  of  most  tropical 
countries  shows  that  steady  and  satisfactory  progress  as  a 
rule  is  only  found  when  there  is  a  definite  department  of  the 
Government  concerned  with  the  particular  matter  in  hand. 
Agricultural  progress  has  been  but  slow,  and  due  more  to 
private  enterprise  or  to  great  natural  advantages  than  to  any 
effort  of  Governments.  Agriculture  is  daily  becoming  more 
scientific,  and  a  Department  of  Agriculture  is  an  evident 
necessity  of  the  case,  just  as  there  is  a  Department  of  Public 
Works,  of  Forests,  or  of  Mining.  The  poorer  agriculturist 
cannot  afford  the  experiments  necessary  for  progress,  were  he 
even  qualified  to  make  them. 

Nothing  will  make  agriculture  progress  rapidly,  or  make 
it  sufficiently  attractive,  but  a  concentration  of  effort  of  all 
departments  or  organisations  concerned,  with  a  definite  policy 
on  the  part  of  the  supreme  Government.  All  effort  possible 
should  be  concentrated  on  agriculture  with  the  object  of  making 
a  "boom"  in  it.  There  is  often  a  feeling  that  this  is  undesirable, 
that  the  first  success  may  be  followed  by  collapse,  but  if  behind 
the  advertisement  there  be  a  solid  basis  for  prosperity,  there  is 


198  AGRICULTURE  IN   THE   TROPICS  [PT.  IV 

no  reason  why  there  should  not  be  rapid  and  permanent  progress, 
like  that  of  Ceylon  in  tea.  It  is  natural  that  any  industry  which 
proves  profitable  should  be  somewhat  overdone,  but  this  will 
adjust  itself.  The  proper  course  is  to  aim  at  making  a  boom 
in  all  forms  of  agriculture ;  when  the  rush  shows  signs  of  being 
too  great,  there  will  be  time  enough  to  put  on  the  drag,  if 
necessary. 

It  is  clear,  from  what  has  been  said  above,  that  practically 
all  departments  of  Government  are  largely  concerned  in  agri- 
cultural progress.  It  follows,  therefore,  that  a  Department  of 
Agriculture  may  have  a  very  wide  scope ;  in  fact,  if  it  is  to 
concern  itself  with  the  control  of  all  work  bearing  on  agriculture, 
it  must  obviously  be  almost  synonymous  with  the  Government 
itself.  This  would  seem  both  impracticable  and  inadvisable ; 
the  weakness  in  the  agricultural  organisation  of  many  eastern 
colonies  seems  to  lie  in  the  attempt  to  include  too  much  in  the 
Agricultural  Department.  Probably  the  best  course  at  present 
is  to  have  a  department  concerned  with  all  the  technical  work 
of  agriculture,  such  as  the  introduction  and  trial  of  crops, 
methods,  machinery,  etc.,  the  study  and  prevention  of  disease, 
and  all  other  scientific  help  to  agriculture  that  may  be  needed, 
and  for  the  head  of  that  department  to  be  the  chief  adviser 
of  the  Government  in  all  matters  of  agricultural  polic}7,  the 
Government  controlling  all  departments  to  a  common  end. 
Thus  road- pro  vision  or  drainage  should  be  carried  out  by  the 
Public  Works  or  Irrigation  departments,  impelled  thereto  by 
the  Government  after  consideration  of  the  recommendations 
of  the  head  of  the  Agricultural  department.  The  latter  de- 
partment, again,  is  helpless  to  do  much  with  the  villager  in  a 
district  where  the  Government  officer  in  charge  may  be  opposed 
to  the  ideas  which  it  is  wished  to  carry  out,  but  the  Government 
can  insist  upon  a  definite  and  continuous  policy. 

So  many  interests  are  concerned  in  agriculture,  that  it  is 
desirable  that  they  should  be  represented  in  some  way  in  the 
councils  of  the  agricultural  department,  so  that  their  recom- 
mendations, opinions,  and  wishes  may  receive  full  consideration 
before  any  important  matter  of  policy  is  pressed  upon  Govern- 
ment by  the  head  of  the  department.  This  is  probably  best  to 


CH.  I]  ORGANISATION   OF  AGRICULTURE  199 

be  effected  by  the  formation  of  an  advisory  Board  of  Agriculture, 
upon  which  such  departments  of  Government  as  Public  Works, 
Irrigation,  Forests,  and  Land  should  be  represented,  as  well  as 
the  planting,  village,  labour,  and  other  interests. 

In  brief,  then,  perhaps  the  most  satisfactory  solution  of 
the  problem  is  the  establishment  of  a  technical  Department 
of  Agriculture,  under  a  Director,  who  shall  be  assisted  by  a 
thoroughly  representative  Advisory  Board  of  Agriculture.  The 
Director  should  be  mainly  responsible  for  the  agricultural  policy 
of  the  Government,  and  its  adviser  in  all  matters  concerned 
with  agriculture;  a  definite  agricultural  policy  should  be  adopted 
by  the  Government,  and  steadfastly  and  thoroughly  carried  out 
for  a  long  period  of  time,  all  departments  and  other  agencies 
concerned  being  resolutely  guided  and  directed  to  the  one  end 
in  view.  In  the  next  chapter  suggestions  will  be  given  as  to 
the  policy  to  be  followed.  They  form  a  connected  scheme,  and 
bear  on  all  the  chief  points  which  seem  to  require  attention. 
They  should  be  considered  as  a  whole,  and  every  possible 
agency  be  put  in  motion  towards  the  common  end,  if  satisfactory 
progress  is  to  be  made. 

It  is  of  course  not  absolutely  necessary  for  the  organisation 
for  the  purpose  of  improving  agriculture  to  be  a  Government 
institution,  but  in  the  tropics  it  is  probably  better  that  it 
should,  as  the  natives  of  tropical  countries  look  to  Government 
for  all  help  and  progress.  An  Agricultural  Society,  such  as 
exists  in  Jamaica,  Ceylon,  Madras,  etc.,  may  often  be  the  means 
of  very  considerable  aid  to  native  agriculture,  but  it  requires 
skilled  technical  help  and  advice  to  draw  upon,  and  these,  in 
the  places  named,  are  provided  by  Government  departments. 


200  [PT.  iv 


CHAPTER  II. 

AGRICULTURAL   POLICY. 

IT  is  obvious  that  the  same  line  of  policy  cannot  be,  and 
ought  not  to  be,  followed  in  every  country,  on  account  of  the 
extreme  variety  in  the  local  conditions.  The  suggestions  that 
follow  are  therefore  of  the  most  general  description,  and  it  is 
for  local  authorities  to  decide  which  are  the  most  applicable  to 
their  own  state  of  affairs.  At  the  same  time,  it  must  be  borne 
in  mind  that  for  rapid  and  steady  progress,  it  is  necessary  to 
attend  to  all  the  most  important  lines.  There  should  be 
complete  concentration  of  effort  upon  agricultural  progress. 
For  example,  it  is  of  very  little  use  settling  the  conditions  of 
land  without  also  attending  to  those  of  finance  or  transport. 
We  may  put  these  suggestions  into  a  tabular  form  thus : 
Make  agriculture  in  general  more  attractive  as  compared 

with  other  pursuits. 

Make  the  land  fully  available,  by  providing  roads,  drains, 
etc.,  at  first  of  course  simply  as  reservations;  start  with 
the  best  land.  Settle  the  forest  and  other  reserves  once 
for  all. 

Attract  population  into  the  country,  capitalist,  peasant,  and 
labouring,  by  good  advertisement  with  rigid  adhesion  to 
the  truth. 

Break  up  the  land,  if  there  be  in  the  country  many  races 
and  many  types  of  agriculture,  into  sections,  divided  by 
roads,  and  reserved  for  one  only  of  these  races  or  types. 
For  instance,  one  section  may  be  reserved  for  estate 
agriculture,  one  for  Tamils,  one  for  Chinamen,  one  for 


CH.  II]  AGRICULTURAL   POLICY  201 

Javanese,  in  an  eastern  country ;  one  for  estates,  one  for 
negroes,  one  for  coolies,  in  a  western.  Of  course  existing 
density  of  population  is  largely  the  determining  factor 
in  the  application  of  this  rule. 

Encourage  the  local  people  to  earn  money  by  working  on 
the  estates  owned  by  capitalists. 

Encourage  the  use  of  machinery  to  reduce  the  demand  for 
hand  labour,  and  to  make  work  more  cheap  and  efficient. 

Arrange  matters  of  finance,  i.e.  money-lending,  seed  or 
manure  supply,  etc.,  for  the  poorer  cultivators. 

Encourage  the  peasantry  in  growing  "export"  crops,  i.e. 
crops  for  sale.  Whether  they  are  sold  or  used  inside 
or  outside  the  country  does  not  matter,  provided  that 
it  has  some  export  trade,  but  the  peasant  cannot  buy 
unless  he  sells,  and  he  now  requires  to  buy  from  other 
countries. 

Open  markets  for  these  export  crops,  e.g.  local  markets,  or 
markets  at  estate  factories  (by  subsidy  if  necessary),  or 
arrange  for  cooperative  sale  at  a  distance,  in  larger 
markets  than  exist  at  the  villager's  door. 

Arrange  education  at  local  schools  to  have  more  bearing 
upon  agriculture.  For  the  younger  children  open  school 
gardens  with  nature  study  lessons;  for  older  children 
tinge  these  lessons  more  and  more  with  agriculture, 
chiefly  general  points,  such  as  rotation  of  crops,  etc. 
For  boys  of  1 6  or  over  start  regular  agricultural  colleges, 
with  plenty  of  outdoor  practical  work. 

Arrange  for  local  shows  and  other  stimuli  to  progress.  If 
the  country  be  a  little  advanced,  start  local  agricultural 
societies  wherever  possible. 

Introduce  legislation  for  dealing  with  the  treatment  of  out- 
breaks of  disease  among  cultivated  crops. 

Open  a  department  of  agriculture  to  attend  to  technical 
matters  of  progress,  and  make  its  head  the  chief  adviser 
of  Government  upon  agricultural  affairs.  The  department 
should  more  specially  attend  to  introduction  of  new  and 
better  kinds  of  plants,  breeding  of  improved  local  races, 
the  attacks  of  disease,  experiments  with  cultivated  crops, 


202  AGRICULTURE   IN   THE   TROPICS  [PT.  IV 

methods  of  growth,  rotation  of  crops,  harvesting,  curing, 
and  marketing,  experiments  with  machinery,  whether 
new,  or  improvements  upon  local  machines,  and  other 
similar  technical  work. 

Finally,  the  Government  should  adopt  a  fixed  policy  and 
carry  it  out  steadfastly,  at  any  rate  for  a  considerable 
number  of  years. 

In  carrying  out  such  a  policy,  the  watchword  must  be 
efficiency,  in  the  true  sense  of  the  word.  Attention  must  be 
directed  mainly  to  the  essential  points,  letting  the  details  be 
filled  in  later.  Every  department,  every  organisation,  and  every 
individual  concerned  should  attend  to  that  for  which  it  or  he 
is  best  fitted,  and  do  it  to  the  best  purpose,  and  all  efforts  must 
be  co-ordinated  to  the  common  end.  The  land  should  be  used 
for  those  crops  to  which  it  is  best  suited,  the  people  for  those 
cultivations  which  they  best  understand  and  can  practise,  the 
cultivations  chiefly  encouraged  should  be  those  offering  the  best 
chance  of  profit  and  the  most  safe  and  steady  market,  and  so  on. 

An  agricultural  policy,  concerned  as  it  is  intimately  with 
all  the  habits,  customs,  preferences,  prejudices,  and  ignorances 
of  tropical  and  conservative  peoples,  should  be  directed  to  the 
lines  of  least  resistance.  The  natural  trend  of  things  should 
be  carefully  watched,  the  preferences  of  the  people  noticed, 
their  customs  respected,  and  the  agricultural  policy  directed 
along  such  lines  as  will  take  advantage  of  these  facts,  not  in 
such  a  way  as  to  run  counter  to  them — e.g.,  in  places  where  the 
people  would  rather  grow  other  crops  to  which  the  land  is 
better  suited,  or  to  which  their  habits  incline  them,  or  which 
yield  greater  profit  with  less  labour,  the  cultivation  of  rice 
should  not  be  forced  upon  them. 

It  is  of  the  very  highest  importance  that  effort  for  agricultural 
progress  should  not  be  scattered,  spasmodic,  or  discontinuous. 
The  efforts  of  all  concerned  should  be  directed  to  one  end,  con- 
centrated upon  the  immediate  problems  in  hand,  and  carried  on 
steadfastly  for  long  periods  of  time.  It  is  useless  to  try  to  go 
too  fast,  and  to  expect  immediate  results  is  more  sanguine  than 
wise  or  reasonable. 


CH.  II]  AGRICULTURAL   POLICY  203 

People  in  a  tropical  country  naturally  tend  to  look  to  the 
Government  for  all  help  and  progress.  It  is  better  to  teach 
them  to  help  themselves,  and  to  help  them  to  do  so,  though  it 
must  be  admitted  that  at  present  there  is  little  prospect  of  any 
voluntary  effort  producing  much  result,  and  consequently  for 
many  years  to  come  the  work  of  progress  will  fall  to  the 
Government  and  to  a  small  section  of  the  agricultural  com- 
munity. 

We  must  now  proceed  to  deal  with  some  more  concrete 
points  in  the  policy  to  be  pursued,  our  aim  being  in  every  case 
to  pick  out  the  essential  point,  and  to  direct  attention  mainly 
to  that. 

The  ideal  set  before  us  being  to  obtain  a  fairly  dense 
population  of  all  kinds,  engaged  in  all  the  different  forms  of 
agricultural  enterprise,  it  is  evident  that  for  any  rapid  progress 
in  a  thinly  peopled  country  it  is  necessary  to  attract  people 
from  abroad  to  engage  in  agriculture,  and  so  far  as  possible  to 
persuade  them  to  settle.  To  do  this  the  country  must  be 
made  more  attractive  to  them — be  they  capitalists,  peasants, 
or  labourers — than  the  other  countries  with  which  it  has  to 
compete.  All  should  be  equally  welcome  who  are  of  good 
stock  and  character  and  willing  to  take  their  part  in  building 
up  the  country.  Afterwards,  when  a  rush  has  (perhaps)  been 
established,  discrimination  may  be  used  if  thought  advisable, 
and  the  less  desirable  races  kept  out. 

In  the  same  way,  all  forms  of  agriculture,  and  those  who 
wish  to  engage  in  them,  should  be  equally  encouraged,  except 
those  which  are  mere  exploitation,  such  as  cheria  or  ladang 
cultivation,  or  tapioca  without  intermingling  or  rotation.  If 
any  one  form  of  agricultural  enterprise  is  to  be  encouraged 
more  than  another,  it  should  be  the  capitalist  or  planting 
industry.  The  capitalist,  large  or  small,  is  not  obliged  to 
make  any  given  country  the  scene  of  his  work ;  he  can  choose 
his  country,  and  there  are  many  in  which  planting  has  already 
proved  successful.  He  brings  money  into  the  country,  opens 
up  large  areas,  creates  work  and  trade.  Two  or  three  large 
planting  enterprises  will  do  more  to  open  up  and  enrich  the 
country  than  thousands  of  villagers  can  do. 


204  AGRICULTURE   IN   THE   TROPICS  [PT.  IV 

As  Sir  Frank  Swettenham  has  pointed  out,  there  is  at 
times  a  tendency  among  Government  officers  to  look  askance 
at  Europeans  anxious  to  engage  in  planting  enterprises,  as  if 
they  were  trying  simply  to  exploit  the  country  for  their  own 
benefit.  This  is  a  very  one-sided  view  of  the  matter.  The 
native  of  a  thinly  peopled  country,  if  given  a  chance,  is  a 
worse  exploiter  than  any  other,  with  his  chena  cultivation,  his 
tapioca  fields,  or  what  not.  Of  course  the  investor  from  abroad 
is  not  there  from  philanthropic  motives  ;  he  hopes  to  "  make 
his  fortune."  He  does  not  want  to  cut  himself  off  from  his 
country  and  friends,  and  to  risk  health,  life,  and  money  in  a 
strange  land  and  in  an  enervating  climate  for  a  return  similar 
to  that  which  he  could  get  at  home.  In  making  his  own 
fortune — if  indeed  he  ever  does  make  it — he  makes  prosperity 
and  wealth  for  many  of  the  natives  of  the  country,  and  for 
those  who  have  worked  for  him.  He  should  receive  every 
encouragement,  and  all  obstacles  which  would  tend  to  drive 
him  to  other  countries,  or  check  his  success  in  his  adopted 
country,  should  as  far  as  possible  be  removed. 

Every  encouragement  can  be  given  to  all  kinds  of  agri- 
culture, without  causing  mere  exploitation  of  the  country.  The 
more  that  genuine  agriculture  is  encouraged,  the  less  will  be 
the  risk  of  such  exploitation,  and  the  desire  to  carry  it  on. 
Exploitation  pure  and  simple,  be  it  chena  cultivation,  tapioca 
cultivation  on  extensive  areas  without  proper  provision  for  con- 
tinuous occupation  and  cultivation  of  the  land,  or  the  system 
of  moving  on  to  new  land  when  the  old  becomes  weedy,  so 
popular  with  the  natives  of  some  thinly  peopled  countries, 
should  be  checked  with  the  strong  hand.  Misfortune,  insepar- 
able from  all  enterprise,  may  at  times  involve  abandonment  of 
land,  but  no  cultivation  which  is  carried  on  with  the  deliberate 
intention  of  exhausting  and  then  abandoning  the  land  should 
be  allowed. 

The  way  to  make  the  country  attractive  to  outside  capital, 
population,  and  labour,  is  obviously  to  remove  the  various 
hindrances,  discouragements,  and  disadvantages  under  which 
agriculture  suffers,  to  encourage  it  in  every  possible  way,  and 
provide  it  with  the  necessary  practical  and  technical  help,  and 


CH.  II]  AGRICULTURAL   POLICY  205 

to  advertise  the  country  and  its  agricultural  attractiveness  as 
widely  as  possible  in  those  regions  from  which  capitalists, 
peasants,  or  labourers  are  to  be  attracted.  But  in  advertising — 
whatever  methods  be  adopted — the  greatest  care  must  be  taken 
that  exaggeration  and  inaccuracy  be  avoided,  so  that  no  one 
shall  be  disappointed  on  arrival  to  find  that  things  are  not  as 
described. 

Every  effort  should  be  made  to  advertise  the  country  to 
the  capitalist  who  may  invest  in  agriculture — to  let  him  know 
that  there  he  can  grow  such  and  such  crops  to  profit,  that  he 
can  get  land  at  reasonable  prices,  with  good  soil,  good  facilities 
for  drainage  and  transportation,  and  a  good  labour  supply.  One 
of  the  first  things,  for  instance,  which  should  be  put  in  hand,  in 
a  thinly  or  moderately  peopled  country,  is  a  kind  of  agricultural 
handbook,  with  good  maps  showing  the  available  land,  types  of 
soil,  road  and  drain  reservations,  elevations,  and  other  practical 
information,  and  with  practical  details  in  the  text  as  to  land 
available,  method  of  getting  it,  cost,  labour,  rules  as  to  opening 
and  keeping  in  cultivation,  crops  for  which  it  is  suitable,  cost 
of  opening  land  in  such  crops,  yield  and  value  of  crop,  cost  of 
cultivation,  profitableness,  and  so  on,  as  well  as  the  necessary 
details  as  to  climate,  cost  of  living,  etc.  Such  a  handbook 
should  be  constantly  revised,  and  should  be  distributed  in  all 
quarters  whence  capital  is  likely  to  flow.  Its  price  should  be 
as  low  as  possible,  and  extensive  free  gifts  should  be  made  to 
all  public  libraries,  journals,  chambers  of  commerce,  planters' 
associations  in  other  countries,  and  similar  institutions. 

Other  advertising  literature  should  be  prepared  to  appeal 
to  the  peasant  and  the  labourer,  and  written  in  suitable  simple 
language.  The  very  greatest  care  should  be  taken  to  avoid 
inaccuracy  or  exaggeration,  and  attention  should  be  paid  to 
suitable  illustration.  The  peasant  should  be  informed  that  he 
can  get  land  on  easy  terms,  in  sections  inhabited  by  people  of 
his  own  nationality  and  caste,  that  it  will  grow  such  and  such 
crops  to  profit,  that  good  markets,  financial  help  (by  credit 
societies,  or  otherwise),  facilities  for  drainage  and  transport, 
and  other  advantages,  are  obtainable,  under  a  secure  and  just 
Government.  His  position  as  regards  taxation  and  other  civic 


206  AGRICULTURE   IN  THE  TROPICS  [PT.  IV 

duties  and  liabilities  should  also  be  made  very  clear.  The 
labourer  should  have  the  conditions  of  labour  made  clear,  the 
rate  of  pay,  the  cost  of  food  and  clothing ;  he  should  know  that 
he  can  get  good  work,  good  treatment,  good  pay,  and  that  he 
will  be  encouraged  to  settle  down  at  the  end  of  his  term  of 
work,  upon  land  reserved  for  people  of  his  own  race  and  caste, 
to  be  granted  upon  such  and  such  terms,  that  he  can  grow  such 
and  such  crops,  obtain  good  markets,  and  so  on. 

One  great  advertisement  must  also  be  remembered — the 
standard  of  quality  of  exported  articles  of  agricultural  produce. 
It  is  of  the  highest  importance  to  get  a  good  name  from  the 
start,  and  keep  it,  if  necessary  by  the  making  of  laws  for  in- 
spection at  the  ports  and  refusal  of  exit  to  inferior  articles. 

To  pass  on  now  to  the  removal  of  obstacles  from  the  path 
of  agricultural  progress,  and  the  making  of  agriculture  as  at- 
tractive as  other  occupations.  This  is  evidently  closely  bound 
up  with  the  first  consideration.  The  various  disadvantages, 
under  which  agriculture  and  those  who  pursue  it  suffer,  have 
been  fully  dealt  with  above,  and  it  will  suffice  to  put  them 
together  in  brief  outline. 

In  the  first  place,  the  best  agricultural  land  of  the  country 
should  be  picked  out,  and  the  chief  attention  devoted  to  that 
until  progress  j becomes  rapid  and  population  large.  The  man 
who  buys  land  for  agricultural  purposes  should  be  able  to  buy 
it  in  such  shape  and  so  located  that  he  is  in  no  way  dependent 
upon  the  acts,  sufferance  or  indolence  of  his  neighbours,  or 
upon  the  circumstances  of  the  surrounding  land,  for  the  carrying 
out  of  his  enterprises.  In  other  words,  he  should  have  inde- 
pendent access  to  public  roads  and  public  drainage  facilities, 
wherever  his  land  may  lie ;  no  land  should  be  sold  which  does 
not  conform  to  these  conditions.  This  is  of  the  very  highest 
importance  for  any  future  agricultural  progress  or  prosperity. 

This  work  has  comparatively  little  to  do  with  a  Department 
of  Agriculture;  it  is  simply  a  preliminary  to  any  real  progressive 
agriculture  in  the  country.  In  the  present  virgin  condition  of 
so  much  of  most  tropical  countries,  this  kind  of  work  is  easily 
carried  out ;  in  this  respect  they  have  an  enormous  advantage 
over  most  eastern  countries,  where  every  inch  of  land  is  often 


CH,  II]  AGKICULTURAL   POLICY  207 

fully  occupied,  and  the  making  of  roads  or  drainage  canals 
consequently  a  troublesome  and  expensive  process.  It  is  of  the 
very  highest  importance  to  agricultural  progress,  and  to  the 
prosperity  of  the  country,  that  it  be  thoroughly  provided  with 
transport  facilities ;  there  should  be  at  least  as  complete  a 
network  of  roads  as  in  such  a  country  as  England,  so  that 
every  little  patch  of  land  may  have  its  own  frontage.  Similarly 
with  drains ;  everyone  who  has  not  natural  drains  should  have 
a  frontage  on  a  public  drainage  canal,  or  reservation  for  such 
a  canal. 

The  Forest  Department  should  be  called  upon  to  settle  the 
forest  reserves,  in  order  that  the  danger  of  floods  and  silting 
may  be  as  far  as  possible  guarded  against,  and  that  agricul- 
turists may  know  at  an  early  date  that  such  and  such  lands  are 
not  to  be  available  for  agriculture,  however  desirable  for  that 
object. 

The  limits  of  existing  villages,  estates,  forest  reserves, 
settlements  of  all  the  different  races  in  the  country,  and  of  all 
alienated  lands  should  be  at  once  determined,  beginning  in 
the  richer  soils.  The  departments  of  Public  Works,  Survey, 
and  any  other  concerned,  should  then  be  called  upon  to  lay  out 
the  road  reservations,  again  beginning  in  the  districts  most 
suitable  for  agriculture.  These  reservations  should  form  a 
complete  network,  and  in  each  mesh  of  the  network  the  area 
included  should  not  as  a  rule  exceed  about  a  square  mile.  In 
places  where  the  country  is  flat  or  nearly  so,  and  quite  un- 
occupied, the  roads  may  best  be  parallel,  demarcating  the 
country  into  squares,  as  in  the  western  United  States,  but  in 
hilly  districts  they  will  have  to  be  laid  out  as  best  suits  the 
engineering  necessities  of  the  case.  In  districts  again  where 
there  is  already  much  settlement,  the  roads  should  be  made  to 
separate  the  different  races,  or  different  types  of  agriculture 
there  existing — e.g.,  to  cut  out  one  section  including  only 
natives  from  another  devoted  to  planting  industry,  and  from 
a  third  in  which  there  is  a  small  colony  of  some  immigrant  race. 

As  has  already  been  pointed  out,  the  road  reservations  need 
only  be  marked  upon  the  map  at  first,  in  unoccupied  country ; 
the  great  thing  is  to  have  a  map  of  the  country  with  all  the 


208  AGRICULTURE   IN   THE   TROPICS  [FT.  IV 

roads  clearly  marked,  so  that  purchasers  of  land  may  know  that 
they  will  abut  upon  a  road,  and  that  when  their  land  is  opened 
up,  the  road  will  be  cleared  also.  The  terms  upon  which  roads 
will  be  made,  and  how  far  away  from  the  nearest  "  made  "  road 
land  will  be  sold,  are  mere  details  for  subsequent  settlement. 
The  important  thing  is  to  make  the  reservations  while  the 
country  is  virgin. 

Drainage  in  flat  lands  is  another  matter  which  must  be 
provided  for  by  the  Government,  and  at  the  same  time  that  the 
road  reservations  are  marked  out,  the  drains  should  be  demar- 
cated also.  As  far  as  practicable,  the  roads  and  drains  should 
be  side  by  side,  and  arrangements  should  be  made  for  the 
future  use  of  the  drains  as  canals,  with  the  necessary  passing 
places,  and  docks  at  the  more  important  centres.  As  with  the 
roads,  the  drains  need  at  first  only  be  marked  upon  the  map, 
but  when  any  land  is  sold,  the  necessary  drain  should  be  cut  to 
it  through  the  drainage  reservations.  This  should  be  done 
by  the  Government,  and  a  small  drainage  rate  charged,  if 
necessary. 

By  the  carrying  out  of  these  two  very  important  measures, 
the  land  will  thus  be  broken  up  into  "sections"  averaging 
about  a  square  mile  each,  divided  by  roads  (made  or  demar- 
cated), and  in  coastal  or  other  very  flat  districts  also  by  drains 
(made  or  demarcated).  The  Land  offices  have  now  to  deal 
with  their  very  important  share  in  agricultural  progress.  In- 
tending purchasers  will  know  that  whatever  land  they  buy  has 
both  drainage  and  transport  frontages,  and  that  the  necessary 
communications  will  be  made  by  Government  to  the  already 
existing  made  roads  and  made  drains,  within  a  settled  period. 

The  most  important  work  of  the  land  offices,  from  the 
point  of  view  of  agricultural  progress,  is  the  intermingling  of 
the  different  races,  and  of  the  different  types  of  agricultural 
enterprises.  This  is  rendered  very  simple  by  the  system  of 
"sections"  already  indicated.  Each  section,  or  at  any  rate 
each  larger  sub-division  of  a  section,  should  be  reserved  for  one 
race  or  caste,  or  for  one  type  of  agriculture.  Reservations  being 
thus  marked  on  the  map,  the  roads  and  drains  are  then  made 
as  required.  In  the  sections  reserved  for  peasant  agriculture, 


dr 


XXV.  The  plan  shows  a  small  portion  of  flat  coast  country  laid  out  as  suggested. 
It  is  supposed  to  be  in  the  Federated  Malay  States.  The  stout  black  line 
along  the  left  is  a  coast  road  with  a  drain  beside  it  and  the  shadings  represent 
existing  agriculture,  the  rest  being  untouched  land.  E  is  estate  agriculture, 
M,  «/,  C,  T,  blocks  occupied  by  Malays,  Javanese,  Chinese,  and  Tamils. 
rr  represent  reservations  for  roads,  dd  for  drains.  Each  section  is  reserved 
for  the  nationality  or  type  of  agriculture  shown  by  the  letter  in  it.  The  short 
lines  projecting  from  the  road  reservation  lines  represent  the  beginnings  of 
roads  into  the  sections  for  peasant  agriculture.  The  shaded  belt  at  the  bottom 
represents  a  swamp. 


CH.  II]  AGRICULTURAL   POLICY  209 

further  reservations  may  be  made  for  roads  and  drains  to  reach 
the  central  parts. 

This  intermixture  of  races  and  types  of  agriculture  is  of 
the  greatest  importance  to  the  progress  of  agriculture  in  the 
country.  It  helps  and  stimulates  the  villager  by  example  and 
rivalry ;  it  assists  to  raise  the  general  standard  of  living,  and  so 
to  improve  the  market  for  produce  and  provide  better  local 
demand;  it  helps  to  check  the  spread  of  disease  among  culti- 
vated plants;  it  provides  village  labour  at  easy  distance  from 
the  planting  estates,  and  provides  opportunities  of  earning 
money  by  external  work  to  the  inhabitants  of  the  village 
sections. 

Not  only  should  the  Land  offices  attend  to  this  breaking 
up  of  the  land  into  sections  inhabited  by  different  kinds  of 
people  and  different  types  of  agriculture,  but  they  should  also 
endeavour,  when  it  is  reasonably  practicable,  to  prevent  too 
much  of  any  one  district  becoming  taken  up  with  one  cultivation 
only.  Thus  if  one  estate  section  is  entirely  rubber,  they  should 
try  to  get  the  next  one,  if  suitable  for  it,  taken  up  for  sugar, 
or  for  coconuts.  Not  only  will  disease  be  less  liable  to  spread 
rapidly  over  large  areas,  but  the  labour  difficulty  will  be  less 
acute,  the  different  products  in  a  district  perhaps  not  all  re- 
quiring their  greatest  labour  supply  at  the  same  time,  as  would 
be  the  case  if  all  the  estates  were  in  one  product. 

By  selling  all  land  with  road  frontage,  the  frontages  on  the 
great  trunk  roads,  and  at  the  corners  where  four  roads  meet, 
need  no  longer  be  allowed  to  go  at  low  rates;  they  may  be 
charged  for  according  to  their  value  as  building  sites  for 
shops,  etc. 

The  next  important  point  is  the  labour  question.  Without 
a  good,  reliable,  and  reasonably  cheap  labour  supply,  capitalists 
will  not  invest  in  agricultural  enterprises.  The  introduction 
of  labourers  into  the  country,  if  not  already  there,  must  be 
made  a  special  object  of  endeavour.  Every  possible  attraction 
should  be  held  out,  and  difficulties  and  inconveniences  removed. 
Let  coolies  be  well  treated,  sufficiently  well  paid,  have  the 
voyage  made  as  comfortable  as  possible,  and  be  free  from 
extortion  or  ill-treatment  on  the  way;  let  special  terms  be 

w.  14 


210  AGRICULTURE  IN  THE  TROPICS  [PT.  IV 

offered  to  induce  them  to  settle  in  sections  of  land  reserved 
for  one  race  or  caste  and  under  their  own  headmen;  and  let 
these  facts  be  freely  advertised.  Actual  raising  of  the  rate  of 
pay  should  only  be  a  last  resource,  when  the  cost  of  living,  the 
advances,  etc.,  have  been  reduced  to  a  minimum,  and  all  other 
inducements  offered  that  are  possible. 

The  removal  of  the  next  important  hindrance  from  the 
path,  the  poverty  of  the  small  cultivator,  which  prevents  his 
being  able  to  adopt  improvements  or  try  experiments  with  new 
crops,  will  in  many  countries  require  the  aid  of  the  Financial 
department  of  Government.  It  was  suggested  above  that 
some  system  of  Cooperative  Credit  Societies  be  established  in 
the  villages,  with  unlimited  liability  and  Government  audit, 
each  society  being  confined  to  one  village  or  "section."  The 
same  problem  must  also  be  attacked  from  the  other  end  by 
some  arrangement  for  providing  a  good  market  for  the  villagers' 
crops;  local  markets  should  be  opened,  and  they  should  be  en- 
couraged to  grow  the  same  crops  as  the  neighbouring  estates, 
and  the  latter  be  subsidised,  when  necessary,  to  induce  them 
to  undertake  to  buy  the  village  produce  at  fixed  rates,  with 
payment  in  cash. 

Another  department  whose  share  in  the  work  of  agricultural 
progress  is  a  very  important  one,  is  the  Department  of  Public 
Instruction.  Education  is  among  the  most  important  agencies 
in  raising  the  general  standard  of  living,  making  the  people 
more  receptive  towards  new  ideas,  and  stimulating  progress. 
It  should  be  generously  provided  and  for  all  nationalities  alike, 
and  every  effort  should  be  made  to  prevent  its  becoming,  as  is 
so  often  the  tendency  with  tropical  peoples,  a  mere  matter  of 
book  learning  and  passing  examinations.  School  gardens,  with 
their  accompanying  lessons  in  nature  study,  elementary  horti- 
culture, etc.,  should  be  made  an  important  feature  in  the  regular 
curriculum,  at  least  in  all  those  schools  where  the  masters  are 
found  capable  and  willing  in  regard  to  such  work.  Actual 
technical  instruction  in  agriculture  may  come  later. 

Other  departments  of  Government  are  also  at  times  able  to 
help  in  agricultural  progress — e.g.,  the  Railways  by  granting 
lower  rates,  the  Public  Health  by  special  attention  to  unhealthy 


(   UNIVERSITY   I 

OF 
CH.  II]  .  AGRICULTURAL   POLICY  211 

but  otherwise  favourable  districts,  especially  in  regard  to  the 
sanitary  conditions  for  coolies,  and  so  on. 

Last,  but  not  least,  there  remains  the  Administration,  the 
work  of  the  district  officers  and  similar  officials,  who  control  the 
headmen,  and  exercise  enormous  influence  among  the  natives 
of  all  races.  As  has  already  been  pointed  out,  these  officers 
can  do  a  great  deal  for  or  against  agricultural  progress ;  in  fact, 
when  one  of  them  is  opposed  to  any  scheme,  it  is  practically 
idle  to  expect  anything  to  come  of  it  in  his  district.  For  this 
reason,  and  because  these  officers  being  so  constantly  removed 
from  place  to  place,  continuity  of  effort  is  impaired,  it  is 
absolutely  necessary  that  the  Government  have  a  definite 
agricultural  policy,  and  see  that  it  is  carried  out  by  its 
subordinates.  . 

In  regard  to  village  and  native  agriculture  generally,  the 
policy  should  be  to  lead  rather  than  to  drive,  though  the  latter 
may  be  employed  at  times  with  advantage — e.g.,  in  dealing 
with  outbreaks  of  disease.  The  villager  should  be  shown  where 
his  advantage  lies,  and  encouraged  to  grow  those  things  that 
he  prefers,  that  he  understands,  and  for  which  he  has  a  good 
market.  Special  attention  should  be  devoted  to  the  removal 
of  hindrances  from  his  path — e.g.,  in  the  matter  of  roads, 
drainage,  finance,  markets  and  education.  His  standard  of 
living  should  be  raised  by  intermingling  of  races  and  of  types 
of  agriculture,  and  the  same  process  will  provide  him  with 
example,  with  object  lessons,  and  with  better  markets.  It  is 
better  in  general  to  aim  at  increasing  his  efficiency  than  the 
amount  of  work  he  does.  He  should  be  taught  that  agriculture 
is  honourable  as  well  as  profitable.  Some  system  of  bestowal  of 
honours  or  rank  upon  those  who  have  done  much  for  agriculture 
might  well  be  adopted,  and  local  shows  also  should  be  en- 
couraged, rather  than  large  public  shows,  at  which  most  of  the 
rewards  are  liable  to  go  to  others  than  the  real  makers  or 
growers  of  the  exhibits. 

It  may  make  matters  more  clear,  if  we  put  the  problem  in 
the  form  of  a  rough  diagram,  as  is  done  on  the  following  page. 
Every  tropical  country  tends  to  settle  down  to  a  certain 
"agricultural  equilibrium,"  generally  very  low,  and  the  object 

14—2 


Provision  of  land,  etc. 
irrigation 
drainage 
___^____  crops 

.transport 
.capital 
education 


level  4 

of  capitalist  agriculture. 


level  3 


of  existing  peasant  agri- 
culture in  Europe. 


level  2 


below  which  real  "agri- 
cultural "  progress  is 
impossible. 


level  1 


of  existing  peasant  agri- 
culture in  most  tropi- 
cal countries. 


B 

Careful  study  of  crops — new  or  improved — on  Experiment 
Stations,  with  a  view  to  making  out  their  suitability  to 
the  country,  profitableness,  etc. 

Ditto  tools,  to  gradually  improve  native  implements. 

Ditto  methods,  to  gradually  improve  native  methods  of  culti- 
vation, manuring,  harvesting,  preparation,  prevention  of 
disease,  etc. 

.Ditto  cattle,  to  gradually  improve  native  breeds. 

Improved  and  more  agricultural  education. 
_Agricultural  teaching  by  field  demonstration. 


And  so  on. 


CH.  II]  AGRICULTURAL  POLICY  213 

must  be  to  raise  this.  We  have  indicated  this  by  the  use  of 
levels. 

If,  as  in  most  tropical  countries,  the  average  level  of  agri- 
culture is  level  1,  then  all  the  factors  A  must  be  first  attended 
to.  In  Ceylon,  for  instance,  capital  is  the  weak  point,  in  other 
countries  it  may  be  land,  or  education.  But  it  must  be  clearly 
understood  that  all  must  be  attended  to,  to  raise  the  level  to  2. 
After  that,  the  factors  B  come  in  and  of  course  an  Agricultural 
Department  may  be  working  at  B  while  the  Government  attends 
to  A. 

The  generally  weak  point  in  most  tropical  countries,  as  in 
Ceylon,  is  capital,  and  until  the  provision  of  this  in  some  form 
is  attended  to,  progress  is  impossible. 

It  must  be  clearly  understood,  as  has  been  indicated  at 
various  points,  that  all  parts  of  the  problem  hang  together. 
If  cattle  are  to  be  improved,  their  food  supply,  and  the  tools 
they  are  to  use,  must  be  improved  also.  If  better  quality  of 
fruit  is  to  be  produced,  manure  must  be  used,  and  a  market 
found  for  the  new  produce ;  and  so  on. 


214  [FT. 


CHAPTER  III. 

DEPARTMENTS   OF   AGRICULTURE. 

AGRICULTURE  has  become  so  technical,  and  accurate  scientific 
experiments  upon  cultivation,  manuring,  preparation  of  crops, 
rotation  of  crops,  plant-breeding,  etc.,  so  absolutely  necessary 
to  its  progress  in  most  countries,  that  a  scientific  department, 
or  some  other  organisation  which  is  prepared  to  keep  up  a 
scientific  staff  and  meet  the  cost  of  such  work,  must  be 
established  in  every  progressive  tropical  country. 

The  department  should  not  try  to  include  too  much.  The 
Government  is  the  body  to  direct  upon  agricultural  progress  all 
the  departments  concerned,  whether  with  regard  to  land,  roads, 
drains,  finance,  education,  or  what  not.  The  agricultural  de- 
partment should  concern  itself  primarily  with  the  technical 
improvement  of  agriculture,  and  only  in  watching  and  criticising 
with  the  work  of  other  organisations. 

Such  a  department  wants  a  trained  scientific  head,  tech- 
nically acquainted  with  the  work  that  must  go  on  in  his 
department,  but  if  he  is  to  be  largely  concerned  with  accounts, 
or  with  other  organisations,  civilian  help  is  desirable  also.  His 
department  should  be  established,  if  possible,  as  far  as  head- 
quarters are  concerned,  at  some  cooler  station  than  is  afforded 
by  the  plains  in  the  tropics,  for  better  work  can  then  be  done, 
under  better  conditions,  by  the  scientific  staff.  At  the  same 
time,  they  must  not  be  placed  in  a  station  too  different  from 
the  ordinary  agricultural  conditions  of  the  country,  so  far  as 
outdoor  experimental  work  is  concerned. 


CH.  Ill]  DEPARTMENTS   OF  AGRICULTURE  215 

Experiments  with  the  different  cultivated  crops  of  the 
country  must  be  carried  out  upon  a  special  Experiment  Station, 
and  if  this  can  be  upon  a  large  enough  scale  to  enable  its  crops 
to  be  sold  in  the  open  market,  under  some  name  which  will 
conceal  their  origin,  a  much  better  commercial  test  will  be 
obtained.  This  is  the  system  which  was  first  adopted  in 
Ceylon,  and  is  now  being  imitated  elsewhere.  Experiments 
with  machinery  can  also  be  tried  upon  the  Experiment 
Stations. 

Introduction  of  new  and  better  plants  from  abroad  requires 
the  aid  of  a  Botanic  Garden  and  Herbarium,  and  of  a  botanist 
upon  the  staff.  Plant  breeding  work,  which  bids  fair  to  be 
one  of  the  most  important  duties  of  such  a  department,  can 
be  carried  on  in  the  Botanic  Garden,  or  upon  the  Experiment 
Station. 

The  aid  of  an  Entomologist  and  of  a  Mycologist  may  be 
necessary  for  the  study  of  the  local  diseases,  and  the  investigation 
of  methods  of  treatment. 

A  Chemist  is  one  of  the  most  important  officers  of  such  an 
institution,  to  analyse  soils,  manures,  etc.,  control  experiments 
upon  manuring,  rotation  of  crops,  and  so  on. 

A  Veterinary  Surgeon  is  required  to  attend  to  stock  im- 
provement, breeding,  diseases,  etc. 

If  agricultural  colleges  are  to  be  started  (in  general  best  after 
boys  have  been  gradually  trained  up  through  the  school  gardens), 
the  staff  of  such  a  department  should  be  able  to  do  much  of 
the  teaching  required,  and  the  colleges  should  be  situated  near 
to  the  Experiment  Stations. 

Such  a  department  will  obviously  require  a  somewhat  ex- 
pensive equipment  in  the  matter  of  laboratories,  library,  and 
so  on. 

Lastly,  the  Board  of  Agriculture  may  be  mentioned.  It 
should  be  advisory,  not  controlling,  and  should  include  represen- 
tatives of  all  important  departments,  interests,  and  organisations 
connected  with  agriculture,  such  as  land,  public  works,  adminis- 
tration, the  mercantile,  planting,  and  peasant  interests,  and 
so  on. 

Such  being  a  brief  outline  of  the  necessities  at  the  head- 


216  AGRICULTURE   IN   THE   TROPICS  [PT.  IV 

quarters  of  such  a  department,  we  have  now  to  consider  how 
to  bring  home  to  the  agricultural  population  the  results  of  all 
the  work. 

The  department  must  obviously  publish  a  journal,  or,  as  is 
done  in  Ceylon,  circulars,  i.e.  occasional  publications  dealing 
only  with  one  item  of  work.  This  form  of  publication  has  the 
great  advantage  that  nothing  need  be  published  until  it  has 
been  thoroughly  worked  up,  that  the  publication  can  be  large 
or  small,  and  that  it  can  be  used  to  save  correspondence,  a 
circular  (marked  or  unmarked)  being  sent  as  a  complete  or 
partial  answer  to  a  letter. 

The  journal  must  evidently  be  in  English,  or  other  European 
language,  in  most  tropical  countries,  and  something  must  also 
be  published  in  the  vernacular  for  the  benefit  of  the  majority 
of  the  population,  who  will  not  understand  it.  As  such  people 
will  not  as  a  rule  read  long  articles,  perhaps  the  best  form  for 
such  publication  to  take  is  that  of  short  leaflets,  which  can  be 
distributed  by  any  organisation  available  for  the  purpose.  It 
is  worth  noting  that  even  for  the  best  educated  and  most 
progressive  part  of  the  community,  the  publications  should  be 
as  short  as  possible.  It  is  better  to  give  a  short  article,  and 
repeat  it  later  under  another  title,  and  in  other  words,  than  to 
give  so  long  a  one  that  it  is  not  properly  read  or  assimilated. 

By  the  publication  of  a  journal,  by  the  visits  of  the  planters 
to  the  Botanic  Gardens  and  the  Experiment  Stations,  or  to  the 
Mycologist  and  Entomologist,  and  by  the  establishment  among 
them  of  cooperative  experiments,  the  planting  or  capitalist 
community  will  probably  be  sufficiently  served,  for  they  can 
write  about  anything  upon  which  they  desire  fuller  information, 
and  can  visit  the  departmental  libraries,  museums,  etc. 

The  next  question  is,  how  to  get  at  the  peasant  class,  the 
poorer  villagers,  and  labourers.  This  is  a  difficult  problem. 
Perhaps  one  of  the  best  ways  of  reaching  them  is  through  the 
administrative  officers  of  Government,  who  should  have  trained 
agricultural  instructors  under  them.  The  work  to  be  done  by 
these  instructors  should  be  planned  out  by  the  Government, 
or  by  their  administrative  superior,  in  consultation  with  the 
head  of  the  agricultural  department,  but  they  should  not  be 


CH.  Ill]  DEPARTMENTS   OF   AGRICULTURE  217 

responsible  to  the  latter  department.  This  department  should 
inspect  and  criticise  their  work,  and  report  to  the  administrative 
officer  concerned. 

Another  good  way  of  getting  at  the  rather  better-to-do 
class  is  through  agricultural  societies,  which  may  be  entirely 
voluntary  or  attached  to  some  Government  department,  prefer- 
ably the  agricultural  or  the  administrative.  These  societies 
may  issue  leaflets,  manage  small  experimental  gardens,  hold 
meetings  for  discussion  of  agricultural  topics,  organise  local 
finance,  markets,  etc.,  press  for  improvement  of  local  transport 
facilities,  and  so  on.  Such  agricultural  societies  are  doing  good 
work  in  Jamaica,  Ceylon,  South  India  and  other  places. 


INDEX 


Abaca  114 

Acclimatisation  31 

Advertising  205 

Africa  12,  16,  36,  50,  74,  107,  119 

Agricultural  Banks  157 
Policy  200 
Societies  199,  217 

Agriculture  in  the  tropics  34 

Aguacate  94 

Alligator  Pear  94 

Allspice  88 

Anicut  22 

Annatto  118 

Areca  81 

Arrowroot  52 

Avocado  94 

Banana  91 

Betel-chewing  81 

Betel  pepper  85,  163 

Bhang  101 

Board  of  Agriculture  199,  215 

Botanic  Gardens  31,  215 

Breadfruit  94 

British    Cotton   Growing  Association 

111 
Buffaloes  139 

Cabbage  palm  82 

Cacao  69 

Camphor  130 

Capital  19 

Capitalist  agriculture  55,  64,  179,  190 

Cardamoms  86 

Cashew  95 


Cassareep  52 

Cassava  51 

Castor  oil  106,  121 

Cattle  138 

Ceylon  1,  2,  4,  5,  11,  17,  18,  19,  23, 
25,  27,  28,  30,  31,  34,  41,  59,  66, 
71,  76,  80,  81,  83,  85,  86,  90,  91, 
93,  95,  100,  103,  106,  118,  121,  125, 
130,  132,  147,  156,  157,  158,  181 

Charas  101 

Chena  1,  35,  50,  154 

Cherimoyer  94 

Chiku  94 

China  grass  cloth  115 

Chocolate  69 

Cinchona  103,  182,  183 

Cinchonidine  103 

Cinnamon  83 

Citronella  121 

Climate  5 

Cloves  88 

Coca,  cocaine  105 

Cocoa  69 

Coconut  76 

Coffee  66,  181 

Coir  79 

Cola  74 

Compulsion  153 

Coolies  14,  61 

Cooperation  13 

Cooperative  Credit  Societies  155 

Cooperative  Seed  Supply  157,  167 

Copra  78 

Cotton  107 

Cubebs  106 


220 


INDEX 


Cultivators  26 

Culture  System  of  Java  151 

Custard  Apple  94 

Cutch  118 

Department  of  Agriculture  197,  214 

Diseases  66,  134,  170 

Diversification  of  Agriculture  188 

Divi-divi  118 

Drainage  21,  24,  150,  208 

Drugs  100,  103 

Dry  Grains  48 

Durian  93 

Dyes  117 

Education  174,  210 

Elevation,  effects  of  8 

Estate  agriculture,  see  Capitalist 

Europeans  and  tropical  agriculture  36 

Experiment  Stations  193,  215 

Exposure  7 

Faults  of  tropical  mankind  12 
Fibres  107,  115 
Finance  19,  37,  155,  210 
Food  for  animals  52 
Forests  9,  184,  207 
Fruits  90 
Fumigation  136 

Ganja  101 
Gingelly  121 
Ginger  88 
Gins  109 
Gourds  96 
Green  manuring  27 
Groundnut  120 
Guarana  75 
Guava  94 
Guinea  corn  49 
Gur  56 
Guttapercha  130 

Hemp  101 
Hoe  25 
Humidity  7 
Hybridisation  58,  62,  67 


Ideals  for  tropical  agriculture  143, 
147,  172,  185,  188,  200,  203 

Improvement  of  varieties  etc.  164 
methods  168,  171 

India  1,  2,  5,  11,  19,  22,  27,  28,  34, 
44,  48,  54,  56,  59,  80,  81,  84,  85, 
86,  90,  92,  93,  100,  101,  104, 
107,  113,  114,  117,  120,  121,  125, 
132 

Indian  corn  49 

Indiarubber  123 

Indigo  117 

Indochina  45 

Indolence  of  tropical  natives  12,  168 

Ipecacuanha  106 

Irrigation  22 

Jaggery  56 

Jak  93 

Jalap  106 

Jambu  94 

Jhuming  1,  35,  50,  154 

Journals  216 

Jute  112 

Khaki  118 
Kitul  81 
Kola  74 

Labour  11,  209 
Ladang  1,  35,  50,  154 
Land  etc.  1,  3,  149,  206 
Lemongrass  oil  121 
Lime,  limejuice  93 
Logwood  118 

Maize  49 

Malaya  1,  3,  4,  11,  17,  18,  21,  27, 
28,  31,  32,  38,  45,  52,  54,  56,  60, 
81,  85,  87,  88,  91,  93,  96,  98,  104, 
106,  125,  130,  132,  151,  183 

Mango  92 

Mangosteen  94 

Manila  hemp  114 

Manioca  51 

Manihot  129 

Manuring  26,  45,  47;  green  27  ;  rab  45 


INDEX 


221 


Manure  supply  157 
Markets  150,  158 
Mate,  65 
Mauritius  115 
hemp  115 

Methods  of  cultivation,  168,  171,  191 
Mexico  89,  106,  125,  129 
Millets  48,  49 
Mixed  gardens  132 
Mixture  of  crops  28,  170 

races  150,  151,  208 
Moneylenders  143,  155 

New  Products  33,  163,  190 
Niger  seed  121 
Nutmeg  87 

Oils  119,  121 

Oil  palm  119 

Opium  100 

Orange  92 

Organisation  of  agriculture  196 

Palms  76 

Palm  fibres  115;   sugars  58 

Palmyra  palm  80 

Papaw  94,  95 

Paraguay  tea  65 

Passion  fruit  94 

Peas  97 

Peasant  agriculture,  see  Village 

and  his  relations  to  land  and 

crop  149 
Pepper  84 

Pests  Ordinances  137 
Philippine  Islands  114 
Piassaba  115 
Pigs  141 
Pimento  88 
Pineapple  91 
Plantain  91 

Planters'  Associations  185 
Planting  enterprises  38 

industry  38,  179 
Plant-life  in  the  tropics  30 
Plough  25 
Population  11 


Poultry  141 

Poverty  13 

Prevention  of  disease  134,  170,  191 

Quarantine  against  disease  136 
Quinine  103 

Kaces  150 

Eaffia  115 

Eagi  50 

Bailroads  18 

Kain,  rainy  season  6,  8 

Eamie  115 

Ehea  115 

Eice  40 

Eoads  17,  206 

Eotation  of  crops  28,  45,  48,  109 

Eoyal  palm  82 

Eozelle  94 

Eubber  123 

Sago  52 

Sapanwood  118 

Sapodilla  94 

Sarsaparilla  106 

School  gardens,  163,  175 

Seed  supply  store  157 

Selection  80,  97,  105,  164 

Sheep  139 

Sisal  hemp  115 

Soils  4,  9,  109 

Soursop  94 

South  America  11,  38,  45,  50,  51,  56, 

65,  66,  68,  69,  72,  75,  103,  105,  106, 

118,  123 
Spices  83 
Spraying  135 
Stock  138,  171 
Sugar  54,  183 
Sugar-apple  94 
palm  58 
Sunn  hemp  114 
Sweet  potato  52 
Sweetsop  94 

Talipot  82 
Tanier  52 


222 


INDEX 


Tans  117 

Tapioca  51 

Taro  52 

Tea  59 

Teaching  of  agriculture  176 

Temperature  6,  9 

Theft  160 

Tobacco  88 

Toddy  78 

Toddy-palm  81 

Tools  25,  169 

Transport  16,  36,  56,  149 

Tree-tomato  94 

Tropical    races    of    man     11,    161, 

168 
Turmeric  118 


Vanilla  89 
Vegetables  95 

Village  agriculture  132,  142,  149,  155, 
161 

Villages  2 

Water  carriage  18 

West  Indies  3,  11,  15,  20,  26,  27,  28, 
31,  32,  37,  51,  52,  54,  55,  58,  71,  88, 
90,  93,  95,  98,  99,  106,  107,  111, 
115,  132,  145,  180,  183 

Wind  8 

Windbelts  10,  61 

Wound  response  125 

Yams  50 


CAMBRIDGE  :    PRINTED   BY   JOHN   CLAY,    M.A.    AT   THE    UNIVERSITY   PRESS. 


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The  Classification  of  Flowering  Plants.  By  ALFRED 
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The  Vertebrate  Skeleton.     By  SIDNEY   H.    REYNOLDS, 

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le  jour. 

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SHIPLEY,  M.A.,  F.R.S.,  and  E.  W.  MACBRIDE,  M.A.  (Cantab.) 
D.Sc.  (London),  Professor  of  Zoology  in  McGill  University,  Montreal. 
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Pall  Mall  Gazette.  Precisely  the  sort  of  book  which,  if  it  came  into  a 
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One  of  the  most  instructive  and  attractive  books  that  could  be  put  into  the 
hands  of  a  young  naturalist. 

Trees :  A  Handbook  of  Forest  Botany  for  the  Woodlands 
and  the  Laboratory.  By  H.  MARSHALL  WARD,  Sc.D.,  F.R.S. 
Vol.  I.  Buds  and  Twigs.  Vol.  II.  Leaves.  Vol.  III.  Flowers  and 
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net  each. 

Nature.  The  clear  and  simple  way  in  which  the  author  treats  the 
subject  is  sure  to  inspire  many  with  interest  and  enthusiasm  for  the 

study  of  forest  botany The  work  will  be  found  indispensable  to  those 

students  who  wish  to  make  an  expert  study  of  forest  botany.  At  the  same 
time  it  is  expressed  in  language  so  clear  and  devoid  of  technicalities  that 
the  amateur  who  wishes  to  know  something  about  our  trees  and  shrubs  will 
find  this  one  of  the  most  useful  guides  to  which  he  can  turn — The  work  is 
a  many  sided  one,  acting  not  only  as  a  guide  to  the  naturalist  in  the  field, 
but  also  as  a  laboratory  handbook,  where  the  use  of  the  lens  and 
microscope  may  be  employed  to  amplify  the  study  of  objects  already 
observed  in  their  natural  habitats.  Botanists  generally,  and  especially 
forest  botanists  will  welcome  the  appearance  of  this  book  as  supplying 
a  decided  want,  and  filling  a  distinct  gap  in  our  literature  of  forest 
botany. 

Grasses :  a  Handbook  for  use  in  the  Field  and  Laboratory. 
By  H.  MARSHALL  WARD,  Sc.D.,  F.R.S.  With  8r  figures. 
Crown  8vo.  6r. 

Field.  The  work  is  essentially  suited  to  the  requirements  of  those 
desirous  of  studying  the  grasses  commonly  grown  in  this  country,  and 
it  can  fairly  be  said  that  it  furnishes  an  amount  of  information  seldom 
obtained  in  more  pretentious  volumes. 

P.  T.  O. 


Cambridge  Biological  Series. 
A  Treatise  on  the  British  Freshwater   Algae.     By 

G.  S.  WEST,  M.A.,  A.R.C.S.,  F.L.S.,  Lecturer  in  Botany  in  the 
University  of  Birmingham.  Demy  8vo.  IQS.  6d.  net. 
Nature.  Its  aim  is  stated  as  "to  give  the  student  a  concise  account 
of  the  structure,  habits  and  life-histories  of  Freshwater  Algse,  and  also 
to  enable  him  to  place  within  the  prescribed  limits  of  a  genus  any  Alga? 
he  may  find  in  the  freshwater  of  the  British  Islands."  To  do  this  within 
the  limits  of  an  octavo  volume  of  less  than  400  pages,  in  which  are 
numerous  illustrations,  is  a  task  possible  of  accomplishment  only  by  one 
very  familiar  with  the  subject  and  skilled  in  concise  expression  ;  but  that 
it  has  been  successfully  done  will,  we  think,  be  the  verdict  after  testing  the 
book  thoroughly.... Prof.  West's  treatment  of  his  subject  is  instructive  and 
stimulating. 

A  Manual  and  Dictionary  of  the  Flowering  Plants 

and  Ferns.  By  J.  C.  WILLIS,  M.A.,  Director  of  the  Royal  Botanic 
Gardens,  Ceylon.  Third  Edition.  Crown  8vo.  IQS.  6d. 

Field.  Taking  this  handy  volume  and  a  local  flora,  the  traveller  or 
student  may  do  an  enormous  amount  of  practical  field  work  without  any 

other  botanical  literature  whatever The  result  is  a  work  that  ought  to  be 

included  in  every  library  of  botany  and  horticulture  or  agriculture,  and  it  is 
certainly  one  that  the  nomadic  botanist  cannot  afford  to  leave  at  home.... 
We  have  used  the  original  edition  of  this  work  since  its  publication,  and 
have  found  it  to  be  one  of  the  most  useful  and  comprehensive  works  on 
plants  ever  produced. 

AthencEum.  The  whole  is  well  abreast  of  modern  research,  and  a 
thoroughly  business-like  volume,  lucid  though  compact. 

Agriculture   in   the   Tropics.     An   elementary  Treatise. 
WILLIS,    M.A.,    Sc.D.     Demy    8vo.     With     25    plates. 


By  J.    C. 

is.  oa.  net. 


Elementary  Palaeontology — Invertebrate.    By  HENRY 

WOODS,  M.A.,  F.G.S.,  University  Lecturer  in  Palseozoology.  Crown 
8vo.  Fourth  Edition.  With  151  Illustrations.  6s. 

Outlines  of  Vertebrate   Palaeontology  for  students 

of  Zoology.  By  ARTHUR  SMITH  WOODWARD,  M.A.,  F.R.S., 
Keeper  of  the  Department  of  Geology  in  the  British  Museum.  Demy 
8vo.  With  numerous  Illustrations.  14^. 

Athenceum.  The  author  is  to  be  congratulated  on  having  produced  a 
work  of  exceptional  value,  dealing  with  a  difficult  subject  in  a  thoroughly 
sound  manner. 


CAMBRIDGE   UNIVERSITY   PRESS 
iLonUon:    FETTER   LANE,    E.C. 

C.    F.    CLAY,   MANAGER. 
©binburflij:    100,  PRINCES   STREET 

ALSO 
H.  K.  LEWIS,  136,  GOWER  STREET,  W.C. 


9   1932 
DEC  101932 


SEP 


APR  2  8  1980 

m  t( 


YC  60303 


, 


